from the townsville bulletin and note the last...

from the townsville bulletin and note the last paragraph...."There is a feeling of certainty out in Mount Isa that it will happen and with the board of the powerful Australian Transport and Energy Corridor Ltd behind it, the line has every chance of becoming a North Australian reality."


JOHN ANDERSEN

August 12th, 2008

NT rail link

THERE is a lot of support in Mount Isa for the building of a railway line from the north-west Queensland city to Tennant Creek, a distance of about 600km. The new line would junction with the Adelaide – Alice Springs – Darwin line at a point between Tennant Creek and Katherine. Construction of the line would take ore freight away from Townsville, but its supporters point to the huge national benefits such a line would create. There is a strong current of feeling in Mount Isa that Townsville taketh but it does not giveth. It's not unusual for an Isean to say `yeah, Townsville gets all of our ore and we don't get anything back'. This maybe so, but it doesn't mean that Darwin is going to become some great benefactor, showering the Isa with largesse when the line goes ahead. There is a feeling of certainty out in Mount Isa that it will happen and with the board of the powerful Australian Transport and Energy Corridor Ltd behind it, the line has every chance of becoming a North Australian reality.