Report on proposed Outback Highway due next month

28/11/97

Transport Minister Eric Charlton said today he expected to receive a report next month on the proposed Outback Highway, which would link Laverton in Western Australia with Winton in central Queensland, via Yulara and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Mr Charlton said the Outback Highway Development Council held its inaugural meeting in Canberra this week to structure the next step in the proposed 1880km transcontinental route.

The Outback Highway Development Council would study a detailed submission compiled by consultants and use that as the basis for a funding submission to State and Federal Ministers.

"The aim of the development council is to analyse the appropriate data and to explore the best avenues towards making this project a reality," Mr Charlton said.

"This third road link across the continent through Alice Springs will bring with it great benefits.

"Apart from providing increased services to communities along the route, the highway will open up significent opportunities for the tourism and pastoral industries and be an important strategic transportation link.

"Currently much of the road is gravel or dirt form, accessible only to four-wheel drive vehicles for much of the year.

"We want to see the Outback Highway upgraded prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games to capitalise on the influx of international tourists.

"The outback route would allow tourists to traverse the continent from Perth, through the Red Centre to Winton in central Queensland and then access places like Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton and Brisbane through an existing highway network."

Mr Charlton said previous peak traffic movements between Western Australia and the Eastern States occurred during the America's Cup in Perth and the Brisbane Expo.

"It will cost an estimated $45 million to upgrade to good standard gravel the WA section from Laverton to the Northern Territory border but the benefits will be enormous," he said.

The Minister said some sections of the Outback Highway were already sealed and it would cost an estimated $92 million to upgrade the remaining unsealed sections to a quality gravel surface.

The cost of completely sealing the Outback Highway had been estimated at $245 million, of which the WA section would require $115 million.

Mr Charlton said the strategic value of the Outback Highway had to be recognised because it offered an alternate east-west route should the Eyre Highway or the northern road link be cut by flooding.

This had been underlined in 1995, when WA had been isolated when Cyclone Bobby cut roads in the North and made the Transline and Eyre Highway impassable.

Mr Charlton wants the Federal Government to fund the project as a route of national and strategic importance.

WA has a sealed road from Perth to Laverton but the remaining 888km of the route to the Northern Territory comprises a dirt road, which is susceptible to rainfall and incapable of taking heavy traffic.

Media contact: Doug Cunningham 9321 7333