Spruiked as one of Australia's "most important strategic Defence sites", Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Tindal has received a $41.7 million infrastructure boost.
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Announced by Assistant Minister for Defence, Matt Thistlethwaite, in Katherine, the funding is already seeing key upgrades underway to live-in and working accommodation for Australian Defence Force members, as well as refurbishments to the Tindal Fire Station, a community building and security alarm upgrades.
"Works are underway on a number of the projects and will create 550 job opportunities in Katherine," the Minister said.
"Investment in the Defence estate also provides significant opportunities for local trades, construction, and other businesses, including promoting the participation of Indigenous companies," he said, adding that 12 per cent of the workforce was Indigenous.
During his tour of the RAAF Base and in particular the Tindal fire station, Minister Thistlethwaite said the $41.7 million upgrades, delivered by local businesses in Katherine, would be "providing a significant boost to the local economy".
"I love coming to Katherine because the community is so welcoming, and the community is such a fundamental part of the important work that's going on here at RAAF Base Tindal," he said. "We're growing the capability of the Royal Australian Air Force and the Australian Defence Force here at RAAF Base Tindal."
The Minister said the upgrades were aimed at "improving the liveability of the base, and ensuring that our ADF personnel get the best opportunity to advance their careers here at Tindal and in the Northern Territory".
"It's about ... ensuring that our troops get a better experience when they're deployed here," he said.
"This is a win for the Australian Defence Force. We're upgrading our facilities here at a very strategic and important base, very important base for the Australian Defence Force, but an equally important relationship with the local Katherine community."
Minister Thistlethwaite said the improved the facilities, would "ensure that we can cater for the increasing number of personnel that will be stationed in the north, particularly in the Northern Territory", in a bid to "ensuring that we have the capacity to defend Australia into the future".
"Tindal is a strategically important base, particularly as a logistics base," he said. "We have fighter jets that operate out of here and increasingly it will be an important base for refuelling operations into the future."
