Townsville Enterprise is calling for the state of the Flinders Highway to be addressed as a matter of urgency to ensure its shortcomings do not jeopardise ‘billion-dollar’ mining and energy developments.

The regional development group has provided a formal submission to the Queensland Government under the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Bill 2023.

Townsville Enterprise chief executive officer Claudia Brumme-Smith said the group welcomed the Queensland Government’s commitment to own and construct the CopperString project; however there were critical steps that needed to be taken to ensure the success of the energy transition.

The generation capacity of the Hughenden region, recognised for its exceptional wind and solar energy resources, was sufficient to meet the Queensland Government’s Renewable Energy Targets (RET) on its own, so recommendations from this region must be taken seriously, she said. 

Ms Brumme-Smith stressed the pressing need to coordinate and streamline all levels of government approval processes for large-scale renewable energy generation and transmission infrastructure projects to maximise investment attraction and remain globally competitive.

In addition, Townsville Enterprise had identified road and water infrastructure as a potential hurdle as growth in high load demands from critical minerals, refining and renewable projects continued in north and north-west Queensland, she said. 

“The anticipated surge in freight demand, driven by CopperString, new wind and solar initiatives, critical mineral mining, and refining projects, poses a considerable challenge to the current state of the Flinders Highway and could potentially jeopardise these billion-dollar developments – this needs to be addressed urgently with an end-to-end infrastructure audit to ensure the highway is fit for purpose,” she said.

“The Flinders Highway is one of the most important national economic freight routes in the country and currently it is not on the infrastructure priority list of the State and Federal governments.”

Below: The Flinders Highway and planned CopperString transmission line route.