Manilla's Mt Borah (880mASL) has been a flying site since the early 1990's when a few local and Newcastle/North Coast Hang Glider pilots established some small cut out HG launches on the West, South and East faces. Godfrey Wenness purchased the property “The Mountain” in 1994 and, with additional land in 2005, it now contains all of the private lands associated with Mt Borah. The west escarpment/slope of the Baldwin Ranges (of which Mt Borah is a part) is Dept of Land and Water Conservation “Crown Land“ which the Manilla SkySailors Club has an access license to allow vehicular travel from the top to the west LZ and also back to the east-side via the saddle track.

During the 1990's, in addition to 16kms of access roads being built, a new north launch was added and the existing launches were expanded to cater for more pilots, large events and easy top landings. In 2004 three UL runways were completed at Godfrey's house to cater for those who often flew in. Launch and facility improvements worth A$392,000.00 including major road works were completed for the 2007 10th FAI Paragliding World Championships event. This included artificial grass on all 4 launches - in total over 17,000sqm was laid and pegged down !

The only costs for pilots to fly Mt Borah over the years has been the local club annual site fee of A$30 which goes 100% towards admin costs and its obligation with Godfrey to maintain the Mt Borah site on a 50/50 cost share basis.

Since 1994 Manilla has hosted 18 international level paragliding events organised by Godfrey Wenness, 15 NSW State Hang Gliding Championships organised by Newcastle HG Club, and many annual fly-in's including the famous easter-time PG State of Origin which attracts over 100 pilots and is the largest paragliding event in Australia aside from the main international one held here.

Recently Mt Borah has become the host of a fast growing Radio Control Glider festival called Manilla Slope Fest. Numbers for the Sept 2011 event will exceed 100 ! There is also an annual 4WD extreme challenge which is part of the ARB National Extreme 4X4 Series.

Over the years many paragliding records (National and World) have been flown from Mt Borah, not to mention hundreds of personal bests every season. Hang Gliders have also flown 300kms flights open distance and triangles. Below is a list of the major Paragliding milestones :

Some paragliding Records from Mt Borah :
1/02/98 - 11/98 Aust National Record Open Dist : 235kms, Godfrey Wenness, Advance Omega 4
16/11/98 - 6/02 World Record Open Distance : 335kms, Godfrey Wenness, Advance Omega 4
6/03/02 - 1/03 Aust Declared Goal Distance and Official FAI Competition Worlds Longest Task : 161kms, Godfrey Wenness, Advance Omega 5R
13/01/03 - Aust Declared Goal Distance : 245kms, Godfrey Wenness, Advance Omega 6 Proto
9/01/05 - Australian National Womens Open Distance : 178kms, Michelle Baptist (Belgium), Advance Omega 6

Source: http://www.flymanilla.com/

Mt Borah
take off : 30°40'44" (30.6789)S; 150°36'32" (150.609)E - Elevation : 895 m.
landing : 30°40'59" (30.6831)S; 150°35'49" (150.597)E - Elevation : 538 m.

Mt Borah has 4 spacious launch grounds, all covered in asroturf (N,S,E,W: 340 - 440m AGL).