The 2001 State of the Environment Report for Australia
(Newton, 2001) noted that noise from transport, industry,
and the community is perceived to be increasing in cities.
Transport noise from road and air traffic was singled out as
a particular concern. A few years earlier, the Senate Select
Committee on Aircraft Noise in Sydney (1995, para. 1.30,
p. 7) noted that the “eVect of airports and aircraft operations
on surrounding communities is a contentious and
enduring issue, and aircraft noise is perhaps the most contentious
and enduring aspect of that issue”. The World
Health Organization (2001) has highlighted a range of
adverse health eVects associated with noise and expressed
concern about the deteriorating noise environment in many
countries. Aircraft noise at night is of particular concern,
because of sleep disturbance and associated eVects on people’s
health (Department of the Environment, Transport
and the Regions, 2000).