With the recent completion of the Ghan railway, Darwin strategic location close to Asian markets has opened up many more opportunities for growth and development. The region has enormous potential to build on its already strong tourism and expanding agricultural sectors. Representing Darwin and Palmerston City Councils, Litchfield Shire, Cox Peninsula, Coomalie and Belyuen Community Government Councils, the Top End Regional Organisation of Councils (TOPROC) is working on a regional development plan to take full advantages of these opportunities.
TOPROC’s six member Councils represent 109,000 people or around 50 per cent of the Territory’s population. In addition, 75 per cent of all Territory businesses are located in this region.
The recently established Darwin Regional Development Board and TOPROC are now working in partnership on a regional development plan. TOPROC’s Greater Darwin Regional Development Strategy began to take shape in November 2003 following the appointment of consultants Sinclair Knight Merz.
The consultancy conducted stakeholder focus groups in Darwin and met with the Northern Territory Department of Industry Business and Resource Development and the Department of Industry Planning and Environment. The work on the regional development plan is expected to be finalised by the end of this year.
As well as TOPROC’s various long term regional projects, such as waste management, it is also working closely with the Darwin Regional Development Board to see where there are other synergies.
The Greater Darwin Regional Development Strategy will cover the following.
- Promoting Darwin as the gateway to Asian markets.
- Tourism – the Ghan bringing 700 people into Darwin each week has had an even greater multiplier effect than predicted.
- Support for small business expansion and development.
- Job creation and population growth.
- Developing the full potential of the Indigenous tourism dollar.
- Ecotourism with the world heritage Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks.
- Providing outback adventure with sophistication – Darwin provides all the services of a capital city.
- Promoting the region as Australia’s Tropical Knowledge capital.
“Tropical knowledge is a key element in the Building a Better Territory development strategy,” said Liam Carroll, TOPROC Executive Officer. “It will focus on deriving benefits from the vast extent of knowledge gained from living and working in the tropical zone of northern Australia.
“We can look at the tropical ecology, environmental management, tropical health and medicine and tropical agriculture. We need to learn from and integrate Indigenous knowledge about land management into land use planning and development processes.”
