Alice-Darwin and East Timor

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)]

Since it is now pretty certain that Australia is going to lead the
United Nations peace keeping force in East Timor, Darwin seems to be
the departure point for traffic in that direction. 

And since Australia seems to have realised that; hey guys, we can't
rely on Uncle Sam to supply any more than crockery for the Officers
Mess because they don't have any "interests" in this area, Australia
seems to have realised, at long last, what others have been saying -
especially the U.S., that we (incl. NZ) are basically on our own in
this region. No doubt if Australia itself was under threat then the
U.S. would react - Australia being defined as an American "interest"
if only because of U.S. bases here. Now maybe, just maybe, we should
be looking at providing serious logistical support to Darwin. Since
any support can only realistically be provided by rail since shipping
is too vulnerable and since road cannot cope too well with large
quantities quickly enough, the impetus to build whatever rail
connection to Darwin is currently planned should now be far more
viable than previous. 

Rail in the area, because of the mainly flat land, should it be
attacked would prove fairly resilient to enemy bombing and able to be
restored quickly without too much trouble, providing such a line was
built with this in mind - plenty of cuttings, embankments rather than
small bridges. In the event of a large bridge being bombed, then the
ability to quicky lay track on a river bed would be required.

Our support for East Timor is expected to last for at least two years.
If I was promoting an Alice-Darwin rail link - or even a Melbourne -
Darwin high speed service, I would be pushing very hard now to promote
such a service. Sound financial backing with an increase in government
support now proven necessary because of our suddenly realised
isolationist situation, could be - should be - able to generate a real
push for such an investment.

Hopefully not only will our troops going to East Timor just be able to
protect the civilians there but it will also have the effect of
removing the blinkers from the pollies here and convince (scare?) them
into showing real serious support for a North-South rail link.

Les Brown