IF THE Northern Territory government’s Northern Australia Development Office wants to deliver projects that do not rely on hand-holding from Canberra, it could do worse than investigating the feasibility of building a multipurpose dam in Katherine.
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As the country continues to hold its breath for the federal government’s White Paper on Developing Northern Australia, NADO should think outside the square and look at single projects that have the potential to deliver numerous benefits for Territorians.
A recreational dam in Katherine fits that bill and, if planned correctly, could provide a new-look tourism boost for the town, in addition to acting
as a flood mitigation tool and providing an alternative source of water for agricultural and mining operations in the region.
The problem is that such a project would be accompanied by an astronomical price tag that the Territory, federal and local governments have neither the funding nor interest to consider seriously.
Furthermore, NADO appears to be devoid of any innovative thinking, preferring instead to sit on its hands while, as general manager Luke Bowen told the Katherine Times in December, there were “a lot of balls in the air” until the release of the white paper.
Given the current level of foreign investment interest in the Territory, surely a project that ticks the big agriculture and tourism boxes – two sectors that will be paramount to developing northern Australia – would be able to garner some genuine interest from overseas-based private investors.
Private investment is the key to successful, large-scale infrastructure projects, as has been demonstrated by the Wager family’s $200 million airport in Queensland, which was completed within 18 months.
Territorians will not get the development growth they deserve while NADO waits for its balls to drop.
