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Tanami a key to defence’s strategy

Tanami a key to defence’s strategy

Upgrading the treacherous Tanami Road could benefit Australia’s defence presence in the North West, WA Senator Alan Eggleston says.

The Tanami is 1000km of unsealed road that links Halls Creek and Alice Springs that, if upgraded, would cut travel time between the two by about half.

Senator Eggleston was in the Kimberley last week to hold community consultations to promote the coalition’s plan to develop Australia’s north.

“It is important to the cattle industry, the mining industry and Aboriginal communities along the way but it is important to the defence forces,” he said.

“We’ve been going on for some time now in the coalition of the need to increase defence presence along the North West coast especially around the North West shelf.

“A fishing boat came and tied up under a rig just last week, which it everyone’s worst nightmare ... so the defence element of it is pretty important.”

The Tanami Action Group was formed earlier this year to lobby for an upgrade to the road and recently returned from a week long trip along the road filming the conditions and communities along the route.

Spokeswoman Lara Wilde, who travelled from Halls Creek to Kununurra for the meeting last week, said if upgraded, the road could be used to transport military assets north via a more direct route.

“The Tanami has previously been listed as tourism infrastructure and we pointed out realistically it is a direct freight corridor and will affect, economically, development of the whole Kimberley,” she said.

“We’ve just had a letter of support come through for the Department of Defence that said while they don’t have any funding to seal the Tanami road, they do acknowledge that it is a key to their strategic approach.”

Ms Wilde said the push to upgrade the Tanami was gaining support with its plight also raised at the Darwin and Broome meetings held by the coalition.