Let’s build our bridge

WE LOOK back and chuckle a little at what Mercury reporter David Killick describes as Hobart’s “unofficial but audacious” bid for the 2020 Olympics.

As ridiculous as the whole concept might have been, the trip down memory lane does serve a fitting purpose.

Had the coronavirus crisis not thrust the world into chaos, this week we would have been cheering on our athletes at Tokyo 2020.

In recent years we’ve been fortunate enough to look at the pages of history books and reflect on the First World War or the Great Depression from the comfort of the 21st century and think how terrible it would have been.

Where mansions now stand and excess wealth allows us to enjoy abundant food, fashion, wine and gadgets, in the 1930s some of the poorest of wretches endured Dickensian conditions.

Yet now we find ourselves at a moment in time. All the wealth, privilege and technology in the world has been temporarily trumped by a killer virus.

Our security blanket has been ripped off and future generations will look back at our masked, anxious faces, loo roll stockpiles, border closures and tragic global death tolls and they’ll think: thank heavens we didn’t have to live through 2020.

But history shows us that new greatness can come out of some of the worst calamities.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was built in the aftermath of World War I.

The Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme was built after the Second World War using migrants from all over the world who were looking for a new life.

Here in Tasmania, the road to the summit of Mount Wellington — Pinnacle Drive — was the brainchild of then-premier Albert Ogilvie. It was built in the early 1930s to put Tasmanians to work.

After the Second World War we saw our own influx of migrants who came to work at the HydroElectric Commission.

David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art was opened nearly a decade ago and it’s held up as being one of the major catalysts for Tasmania’s economic, tourism and cultural renaissance.

Tasmanians have gone from being the brunt of mainlander jokes to the envy of the nation for our clean air, our food, our drink and our lifestyle.

Premier Peter Gutwein has led the state through the coronavirus crisis and his strength means he now enjoys unprecedented popularity.

In opposition, Labor has struggled to land a blow. It snipes from the sidelines but rarely gets any cutthrough.

As drawn-out as this crisis may be, it will end. And before it ends this state needs leadership that seizes the opportunity to propel us on to bigger and better things.

The tourism dollars that have stoked our economy for the past 10 or so years are gone in the short-term and are unlikely to return in the same abundance for some years.

The challenge for not just our political leaders but our business leaders and our visionaries too, is to think big.

What’s our Sydney Harbour Bridge or our new Pinnacle Drive or our Mona?

What will be the post-coronavirus legacy that symbolises for generations to come that no matter the challenge, better times lie ahead?

And who will have the conviction, the guts and the vision to see it through?