WE’RE READY TO

STADIUM WIN THE CATALYST

TONIGHT, the unthinkable happens.

One of Australia’s biggest sporting moments is on in Townsville. Origin.

The pinnacle event of rugby league, watched by two million people around the nation, right here for the first time.

So how did we get here? How did little old Townsville manage to trump Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane to host this blockbuster.

Who pulled it off? The short answer is you.

The people of Townsville made this happen with your extraordinary, David-and-goliath campaign for a new stadium in the heart of the city.

Within weeks of my arrival here as Townsville Bulletin editor in January 2016, a shockwave swept the city. Clive Palmer had without notice placed the QNI nickel plant at Yubulu in receivership, dumping nearly 1000 workers on to the scrapheap.

The closure was a body blow to a city already struggling with mining and farming slumps. Townsville was brought to its knees.

Unemployment was soaring, particularly for younger people, with little hope for a turnaround.

The one ray of sunshine was our footy team. The Cowboys were NRL premiers, skippered by one of the greatest players in history, Johnathan Thurston.

And it was JT’S immortal words, spoken on the victory dais at the 2016 grand final, that became the rallying call for Townsville.

“North Queensland deserves a new stadium,’’ became a mantra for just about every resident. At the paper, we believed driving a reinvigorated campaign for a stadium would provide an inspirational focus for a city that had suffered some telling setbacks.

To be fair, the Bully had been pushing for a new arena since 2010. But now the stars were aligning.

Business and community leaders, Mayor Jenny

Hill and her fellow councillors, Labor’s local state

MPS, but especially the broader Townsville populace rallied around the Bulletin’s campaign.

We aimed it squarely at where the purse strings were pulled – Canberra and Brisbane – with an eye on perhaps the most important leverage at our disposal, the upcoming federal poll. Herbert, one of the country’s most marginal seats, would be critical to Malcolm Turnbull’s hopes of re-election.

Aside from the emotional upside of getting a brand new stadium, there were compelling economic arguments. The modelling showed it could be a catalytic development, an anchor that would act as a magnet for a wave of investment in the city’s CBD.

Yet the one stumbling block was our local federal MP, Ewen Jones. Sensible in most other respects, Jones had an inexplicable distaste for the stadium project. But he was like King Canute, trying to deny a tide of support.

First, Bill Shorten pledged to stump up the balance of $100m. Then Annastacia Palaszczuk stepped in, pledging $140m in state funding. The NRL agreed to chip in $10m.

Jones stood firm in his opposition.

Yet every day, backed by the people, we threw page after page into the stadium campaign coverage.

Finally, just four weeks before polling day, with the election tightening alarmingly, Turnbull called the paper with the news we’d been craving. It was ours.

Unfortunately for Jones and Turnbull, it did not make it theirs and $100m was spent – politically at least – in vain, as Cathy O’toole squeaked home by 37 votes.

In the end, tonight’s event should, beyond the drama of the game, be a celebration of this town’s spirit.

Like JT, it never threw the towel in, no matter how dire things seemed.