Port a key for robust outlook

MICHAEL MADIGAN TOWNSVILLE Port is the largest container port in northern Australia, handling $10 billion of cargo a year, and in the decade ahead it will emerge as one of Australia’s most crucial links to the booming economies of Asia.

Townsville was hit hard in January last year when the first of just under 800 workers were ushered out of Clive Palmer’s failing Yabulu Nickel Refinery.

The sackings sent the city, already stung by the mining downturn, into a decline, culminating in an 11 per cent unemployment spike in November, which was four times that of 2008. One in five young people is without a job.

It is a blow for a region that had population growth slip from one of the state’s best to below the state average in the past two years.

Residential building approvals peaked eight years ago and have not recovered.

House prices have been trending down since 2010 and the 7 per cent vacancy rate is among the state’s worst.

But eternal optimist Jenny Hill, in city hall for 20 years and Mayor for five, maintains a “glass half-full’’ philosophy, concentrating on securing a “City Deal’’ with the state and federal governments.

That deal was sealed in December, promising, in Cr Hill’s words, “a momentous 15-year commitment to bring to life a shared vision for Townsville”.

The City Deal, the first in