ON THE WALLABY- 28th May 2007

”Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.” - Sir Walter Scott,(1771-1832) Scottish poet

INFRASTRUCTURE- DO WE HAVE THE WILL TO PRESS POLITICIANS TO BE FAIR DINKUM ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT?

Over the last week Sam and I have travelled to Parkes and Rockhampton to attend functions at which I spoke about infrastructure (or lack thereof) and its potential.

In Parkes I spoke at the Parkes Rotary Business awards and the point I was making there was that Parkes is now, provided “we” have the brains and the will, wonderfully situated (through Everard Compton’s dream of a new Melbourne to Brisbane railway line) to not only surge ahead through business generated by that line but also to become an integral cog in the Australian national transport wheel.

Add to that, the wonderful input having an international freight airport at Parkes, which would take a lot of stress of the major airports (and suburban road infrastructure) in Sydney, Melbourne and to a lesser degree Brisbane and you would have a transport system that took traffic off the roads, gave fast and efficient national and international freight movement and greatly aid decentralisation!

It is when freight arriving or heading out from Parkes can be combined as a rail/air operation that we will really see transport fire ahead.

We must be prepared to look outside the square if we are to keep pace with international trends and as I found out when living in Rockhampton from 2000 to 2003, sometimes it is hard to get the initial roll of the rock going. Situated as it is on the banks of the Fitzroy River, Queenslands largest river, Rockhampton has an abundant supply of fresh water. A few miles away, as the crow flies, are the rich soils of the Alton Downs area. It seemed to me logical to pump the Fitzroy water up to the peak at Alton Downs and then irrigate the land below to provide the growth for the growing of vegetables and fruit.

Why these in what is known as “the beef capital of Australia?”

Simple. The Rockhampton airport, thanks to work done to extend it because of the joint armed services ”war games” each year with the Singaporean and US military, now has the capacity to take jumbo freighters and thus fruit/vegetables that are picked in Rockhampton that morning can be in South East Asia (Bangkok,Hong Kong etc) that night.

Regrettably, that plan did not go anywhere at the time and I must confess that in giving my address to the QREX (Queensland Resources Expo Conference)this week in Rockhampton, I concentrated on northern Australian development and its urgency as an overview and omitted to “take up the cudgels” again.

Be that as it may, in this years federal election, with it looking like being a photo finish, there will be many opportunities to take this infrastructure issue to both parties and gain solid, not “full of air”, assurances that attention will be given.

If there is not, there is only one group to blame – we, the voters!

Carpe diem

Tony

Tony Fountain

Professional Speaker, auctioneer and author

Sydney NSW Australia

If you would like to subscribe a friend or colleague to these free “On the Wallaby” email bulletins, click here and place their email address in the subscription box .