Koolan Island Village Airport

Economic reasons. The airport was built and operated to support the BHP iron ore mine and the residential community of workers and their families living on the island. In 1993, BHP ceased operations after exhausting the high-grade ore reserves accessible at the time. With the mine's closure, the entire town was decommissioned and its residents relocated, rendering the airport's purpose as a community lifeline obsolete.

The physical site of the original airport has been redeveloped and is now the location of the modern, private Koolan Island Airport (ICAO: YKLI). Mining operations on the island were recommenced in the mid-2000s by a new company, Mount Gibson Iron. The airport was rebuilt and is now an active, modern airstrip used exclusively for the company's Fly-in/Fly-out (FIFO) operations. It is a private and restricted-access facility, not open to the public. The 'village' it once served no longer exists.

From the 1960s to 1993, the Koolan Island Village Airport was a critical piece of infrastructure in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia. It served as the primary connection to the mainland for the isolated mining town, which had a population of up to 1,000 people. The airport handled regular passenger transport for the fly-in/fly-out workforce and their resident families, with scheduled services operated by regional carriers like MacRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA) and later Ansett WA, often using robust turboprop aircraft such as the Fokker F27 Friendship. It was vital for delivering mail, fresh food, essential supplies, and facilitating urgent medical evacuations to hubs like Derby and Broome.

There are no prospects for reopening the 'Koolan Island Village Airport' in its original capacity as a public or community airport. The residential town it was built to support was permanently dismantled. The current airport on the site (YKLI) is fully operational but is, and will remain, a private facility dedicated solely to serving the needs of the Mount Gibson Iron mining operation. There are no known plans to convert it to public use.