Mayor touts Shoalwater Bay for US military base
A central Queensland mayor says he would welcome a permanent United States military presence in his shire.Livingstone Shire Mayor Bill Ludwig says Shoalwater Bay is already an Australian Defence Force (ADF) training base north-east of Rockhampton and it would be an obvious choice for federal authorities considering such a facility for US troops.
The head of the US Armed Forces, General Richard B Myers, announced during his recent visit that a study group to discuss the option of creating a permanent military base in Australia had been established.
Councillor Ludwig has admitted he has not had any direct talks with defence officials but has got most of his information from the media.
“It’s our understanding from that activity that the US and Australian defence forces were looking at some joint facility somewhere in either Queensland or possibly the Northern Territory,” he said.
“Obviously if they’re looking in Queensland Shoalwater Bay would be a prime site for that type of activity.”
Shoalwater Bay is the site of bi-annual military training exercise between US and Australian forces.
Councillor Ludwig says there would have to be widespread consultation before any decisions could be made.
“We already have issues currently with the exercises that take place both with the Americans and the Singapore Army and also ADF exercises on the basis that a lot of the roads they are using to access Shoalwater Bay have never had major capital contributions,” he said.
Beattie responds
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says he expects the Prime Minister to brief the State Government about plans for a permanent US military base in central Queensland after the election.
Mr Beattie says while he knows little about the proposal, he supports Queensland’s developing relationship with the international forces already sharing the base.
“We have, as you know, very good relations with the Singapore Government,” he said.
“You also know that US naval and other services have been involved in joint operations off Rockhampton, so that’s not new.
“I would be strongly supportive of those operations continuing, that is with Australia, Singapore and the United States.
“I have no problem with that at all.”
Magnesium International chief meets central Qld mayors
Friday, 30 January 2004The managing director of a company proposing a $700 million magnesium smelter has met the mayors of Rockhampton and Fitzroy Shire.
Magnesium International has approvals for the smelter at Port Pirie in South Australia but has been comparing the costs of alternative sites in Stanwell, Gladstone, Townsville and Victoria.
It is expected to decide on a preferred location today.
Fitzroy Shire mayor Don Close expects to have further discussions with the company. “I am very confident that from the discussions that we are in with, you know, our area is a good choice,” he said.
“The discussions certainly confirm to me that the Stanwell Industrial Corridor and the Rockhampton region has got a lot to offer to businesses to locate to this region.”
Hi richmond
i thought the Mag smelter was a dead duck, with cost blow outs, Magnesium international has struggled to get finance, so the project is unlikely to go ahead. At least thats what i thought the situation was afew months ago have things changed ?
regards westan
I find +ve cashflow deals in New Zealand which I sell to other investors. To be on my database send an e-mail to [email protected]
Howdy Westan,
Both those stories are from this week on the abc website… so they’re current. The Magnesium one is from yesterday. I thought the magnesium plant was a dead duck too… but that doesn’t mean I can’t hope!!
cheers mate
rRichmond
i copied this from the companies own announcement to the ASX
Date of Lodgement : 15-Jan-2004
Title : Open Briefing. Magnesium Int. MD Outlines 2004 Objectives
corporatefile.com.au
What broad objectives does Magnesium International Limited (MIL) have for
2004?
Managing Director Gordon Galt
Our major broad objective is quite simple – to present our SAMAG smelter project
to the equity market for final funding as soon as possible. We still have a
reasonable amount of work to do with our site review and, of course, we need to
confirm one or two more cornerstone investors before we can do this.so they have to get over the first hurdle of 1 or 2 more investors then attempt funding through the market. So don’t get too excited about this project yet.
regards westan
I find +ve cashflow deals in New Zealand which I sell to other investors. To be on my database send an e-mail to [email protected]
Nah, not excited, just giving an update… thought the likes of markpatrick might find it interesting…
cheers
rps I’ll still be hoping though
Hi Guys
Aren’t cornerstone investors the important ones?
If you haven’t got them in place now, it could be some time before you get them then.
Regards
Go ahead and hope Richmond but, whatever you do, don’t hold your breath.
Even if ‘your’ town is the chosen area it may take who knows how many years for the project to come on stream.
Pisces
Gee, um, thanks Pisces, for pointing that out.
cheers
rBut
once the announcements are made, suddenly the locals start to smile and walk proud and spend. they get confident and start to buy investment properties, then investors move in and do the same, suddenly the prices take off. Then everyone all the hopefulls arrive and pay 20% above asking price and Richmond and Mark go (beauty).[^]
and then they retire and come and visit me in NZ []
so it all turns out good in the end.westan
I find +ve cashflow deals in New Zealand which I sell to other investors. To be on my database send an e-mail to [email protected]
Originally posted by Pisces:Go ahead and hope Richmond but, whatever you do, don’t hold your breath.
Even if ‘your’ town is the chosen area it may take who knows how many years for the project to come on stream.
Pisces
I find this post a little overly negative, after all anyone that bought in Rocky has bought undoubtedly at the bottom of the cycle, and for those that bought the CF+ cheapies there is really only one way to go, but thankfully all my eggs ain`t in one basket….this time.
Rocky doesn`t have to “boom” for the investors to win, this horse doesn`t have to win the race just catch up a bit and move up a few spots, but I`ve seen it before when a place reaches heights few can imagine, if that should happen, at this point it could mean financial freedom for PI`s like myself.Richmond and Markpatric, I have never been to Rockhampton and haven’t got a clue what the state of affairs is there.
The reason I posted the way I did was because it reminded me of the time when I was involved in some real estate in Parkes and the local publican told us that BHP for some ten years had had some gold mining claims near Parkes.
At the time (1986) the publican said “this time however they must be very serious about the project as I had a party of engineers staying at the motel the week before who had come to look at the water supply situation.”
(to mine gold a lot of water is needed to treat the ore).
His conclusion ? That development of the mine was very close to become a reality.
The outcome ? I think it took close to another ten years or so before it actually happened.
So big projects can take a long time to come on stream.
Pisces
by the way guys, the magnesium project we’re talking about is a different one to that which was mothballed: Here’s an article from magnesium.com dated December 2003.
The mayor of Rockhampton has had some discussions with the Department of State Development about a possible second magnesium development in central Queensland, Australia.
Magnesium International Limited (MIL) has received approval to build a smelter in South Australia, but now says it is considering alternative sites, including Rockhampton, Gladstone, and Townsville.
The Australian Magnesium Corporation (AMC) has mothballed a proposed light metals plant at Stanwell, near Rockhampton.
Mayor Margaret Strelow says the MIL project would be the icing on the cake for central Queensland and believes the region has a lot to offer.
“Clearly we’ve got magnesite which is very important and there are a couple of different holdings of that, it’s not all tied up by AMC, but we also have, of course, water and cheap power, which would be the main attractant to Magnesium International out of South Australia and into Queensland,” she said.
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