17 April 2014 John Shipp The West Australian
Northern Australia is suffering a housing affordability crisis. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Recent media reports confirm this crisis. It was reported in this newspaper that Karratha and Port Hedland had a housing shortage of 1531 and 1402 dwellings respectively.
One father of three said that rent for his three-bedroom home recently rose to $1600 a week. “I’m a local person, lived here all [...]
30 July 2014 Ebonnie Spriggs ABC News
Large-scale, fly-in fly-out (FIFO) mining camps should become a thing of the past as the State Government works to develop Pilbara towns into thriving populations centres, former WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls says.
Mr Grylls, the architect of the State Government’s Pilbara Cities policy, said the northern towns were building their capacity to better cater for mine workers.
Announced in 2009, Pilbara Cities seeks to build the population [...]
24 May 2014 Mark Di Stefano ABC News
Teenagers from the Northern Territory have expressed negative views about living “down south” amid fears for the future of the mining sector in the Top End.
The 16- and 17-year-olds were brought together by the ABC to discuss the issues surrounding the Northern Australia White Paper as Federal Parliament’s joint select committee holds public hearings in the Territory.
Gary Higgie from Taminmin College pointed to the mining [...]
6 May 2014 Erin Parke and Gian De Poloni ABC News
High living costs and government red tape are inhibiting economic growth in Western Australia’s north, a parliamentary committee investigating the development of northern Australia has heard.
A public hearing of the Inquiry into the Development of Northern Australia was held in Broome and MPs heard from more than a dozen organisations about what could be done to boost populations and productivity in the Kimberley.
[...]
25 April 2014 Ben Smee NT News
THE cost of living in the Top End continues to climb, according to the latest inflation figures that show prices in Darwin outpacing those in other capitals.
Darwin’s growth was the highest in Australia last quarter and for the past year.
In the 12 months to March, the price of goods and services increased by 3.6 per cent in the Top End. The national average was 3.2 per [...]
30 January 2014 Alan Kohler The Drum
There’s every indication we are approaching a national emergency when it comes to infrastructure, writes Alan Kohler.
One of Australia’s many political ironies is that the national effort to Stop The Boats has disguised an immigration boom.
Immigration has increased five-fold since the Howard Government came to office and with a big increase in births over the past ten years, in part also due to Howard [...]
20 January 2014 Melanie Timbrell Commonwealth Bank of Australia
The resource rich states of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland continued as frontrunners in CommSec’s quarterly State of the States report.
WA once again came out in front, leading the other states in retail spending and ranking second for six other economic indicators including business investment, construction work and unemployment.
The only area where the western state lagged was new housing construction, in [...]
28 December 2013 Georgia Wilkins The Age
As the mining boom slows, Western Australia’s ‘City of the North’ looks to the future.
The town of Karratha, at the centre of Australia’s iron ore and natural gas boom, is facing a pivotal moment, as a rush of money from royalties floods in just as the mining boom starts to recede.
But the impact of the slowdown on the town is being challenged by officials [...]
31 October 2013 Jonathan Barrett The Australian Financial Review
Port Hedland cafe owner Ray Sampson has been looking for a one-bedroom unit that his son, who is also the cafe’s chef, can rent in the post-mining boom property market.
“The agents said the old tenants paid $1600 a week,” Mr. Sampson said. “I got them down to $850. It’s a good thing prices are down, but I think it still needs to come down further.”
[...]
16 July 2013 Northern Territory News/Sunday Territorian
LETTER OF THE DAY
I’VE lived in Brisbane for all of my 63 years and have only visited the north for a couple of weeks last year.
I know that many in Northern Australia would like to see much more development in the north and just as many would like it to stay just like it is.
With such a huge area it is possible to have the [...]
