A PROPOSED rail link to Kununurra could be the catalyst for Katherine to triple its population, according to Minister for Infrastructure Peter Chandler.
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During a visit with Department of Infrastructure and Department of Transport executive staff on May 12, Mr Chandler supported Member for Katherine Willem Westra van Holthe’s August 2014 suggestion that the town could become a “town the size of Alice Springs”.
Mr Chandler said such growth was possible, adding that key infrastructure - including a mooted rail network linking Kununurra to Darwin - could transform Katherine into one of the Territory’s freight hubs.
“I’ve always seen Katherine as a future Dubbo … it is just one of those hub areas,” Mr Chandler said.
“There’s a lot of suitable land around Katherine and, of course, you've got the rail line coming through here now and, in the future, if there is a rail line out to the Kununurra region, what that will do to Katherine is transform the place.
“Put that on top of what Defence is going to be doing [with the $470 million RAAF Base Tindal upgrade] here, then you've got a lot of action happening right here in Katherine.
“I think [correct infrastructure development] is the essence of making or breaking a good, well-planned Katherine.”
While it remains to be seen how much of the $100m the federal government has committed to upgrading northern Australian cattle roads will be spent in the in the Katherine region, Department of Transport chief executive Clare Gardiner-Barnes said she believed the Territory had a “good case” for the majority of the funding.
“There’s some big numbers of cattle coming through the Territory, so I think we’ve got a good case to argue that a lot of that $100m should be in the Territory,” she said.
Mr Chandler echoed the sentiments of Mrs Gardiner-Barnes and said the NT needed to be the focus of the drive to develop Australia’s north.
“We should be the ones, the Northern Territory should be the ones driving the north Australia agenda, not Queensland, not Western Australia, it should be us,” he said.
He added that there was still a lot of work to be done before Katherine was linked by rail to Western Australia.
“I’m hopeful that within the next few years, we’re going to see some real movement in that area but there’s still a lot of ducks to line up yet,” he said.
