GREENVALE PROJECT GIVES HOPE FOR FUTURE

The Townsville region got an early Christmas present yesterday with the announcement of an $800m contract to build the Australia-singapore Military Training Initiative. Last year, the revealed the purchase of a number of massive parcels of land, worth conservatively more than $100m, to house the facility.

Back then it seemed like a done deal but that was 2019, a time before COVID-19.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown the nation’s finances into disarray with billions of dollars spent just propping up the economy.

The big spend has put major projects in a sort of limbo but yesterday’s announcement cements what is set to be a massive build northwest of Townsville at Greenvale.

Experts say the entire project could cost north of $2.2bn and it’s no wonder.

The training facility will be the size of a small town all built from scratch.

Roads, sewage, power, communications, medical facilities, range control and an airfield are just some of the infrastructure that needs to be built.

Australian-based company CPB Contractors will oversee the multibillion-dollar, job-creating project.

They will be in charge of working with subcontractors on each aspect of the build.

That’s the good news for local Townsville businesses and people needing a job.

There is going to be plenty of work on offer for many years to come.

The idea behind it all is to provide the Australia and Singapore military a place to train together.

The initiative will see about 14,000 Singaporean soldiers head to North Queensland for 14 weeks at a time over 25 years.

That is also expected to inject another $1bn a year in to the North Queensland economy.

Contractors plan to start work by mid-2022, giving local businesses enough time to ready themselves.

Also on the cards is direct flights from Townsville to Singapore opening up our region to the world.

Coming out of COVID-19 it is hard to think of a more positive project for North Queensland.

It should give every person in the region another reason to be confident in the future.

the death of Mary I at 42, Elizabeth Tudor comes to the English throne as Elizabeth I.

1824Explorers

Hamilton Hume and William Hovell reach the future site of Albury, NSW, and carve their initials on a tree, known as the Hovell Tree.

1869The

Suez Canal, 190km long, opens after 10 years’ construction by a French company. It is too shallow and has to be dredged.

1903The

Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into its Bolshevik and Menshevik factions.

Lennon and Yoko Ono release the album Double Fantasy. It is Lennon’s first album in five years and his last before his death in December 1980.

demonstrations begin in Czechoslovakia, set off by police brutality. They eventually topple the Communist government.

Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Police then kill the assailants. s president Robert Mugabe finally resigns after 37 years in office.