Townsville Update
Our city is making great progress.
Townsville survived its worst ever natural disaster due to an unprecedented monsoonal event. But it is evident our city is getting through these challenges and is more resilient than before. At Council, we are doing whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to help people get back on their feet and fully recover from this unprecedented natural disaster.
Again, I must thank the State and Federal Governments for allocating $242 million in funding for all of North Queensland region’s long-term disaster recovery package. The package includes $100 million for an infrastructure betterment fund, $33 million for riverbank and coastal recovery work, $20 million for cleaning up and repairing community assets and $14.5 million to restore damaged water and sewerage infrastructure. The funding package is crucial to rebuilding
our region.
I firmly believe that when we look back on 2019, we will recall far greater milestones than the rain event. There’s a lot of work ahead for Council, and this year we will see some big wins for the city.
Council is pushing our case for direct flights between Townsville and Singapore by supporting a bid to fight for the new international flight route. This is a combined effort between Townsville Airport and Council to lobby for a direct connection to Singapore’s Changi Airport – which recorded over 65 million passenger movements last year. The benefits to our city will be huge if direct flights to Singapore commence. We already have several economic ties to Singapore including the JCU campus and the Australia-Singapore Military Training Initiative. This route could also open Townsville up to further trade with Asia and benefit our education, tourism and hospitality industries.
Of course, these colder months of the year represent our wonderful festival and events season. This year, however, we are taking a bold leap forward. The North Australian Festival of Arts and Northern Fringe will be unlike anything our city has seen before. Festival 2018, as part of last year’s Commonwealth Games celebrations, certainly set a high standard for community events and received widespread praise. It was an epic celebration that carried its own unique brand and was created and delivered by the people of Townsville.
This year for the month of July, NAFA 2019 promises even more. One of the major features will be a free concert held at Strand Park. Local talent, Marrow Lane – our Youth Music Competition winners – and the Neck of the Woods People’s Choice winners will perform at a free concert alongside headline acts San Cisco and Young Lions. It is amazing to be able to give locals a chance to put themselves on a major stage with big name artists like this.
The free concert joins a NAFA line-up that includes Strand Ephemera, Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows, punk-cabaret show Bernie Dieter’s Little Death Club and Theatre iNQ’s Vagina Monologues. Running alongside NAFA, the Northern Fringe Festival will turn our parks, pubs, retail precincts
and open spaces into live performance venues, providing a stage from comics, musicians and artists of all types to dazzle and excite.
North Australia has an incredible amount of talent and we want to give everyone the best chance to get involved with the festival.
The success of Townsville Eats continues to draw people into the CBD, boosting business for local traders. Many thousands of people have already visited the CBD to be part of Townsville Eats – and this is a great example of the positive outcomes that can be achieved when we work collaboratively with local businesses.
I hope you all get behind these wonderful events and take the time to celebrate our unique lifestyle. While we recognise our recovery efforts could take up to two years to complete, we’re in it for the long haul.
