Tennant Creek Expo is good for local business

Mark John reflects on the recent Tennant
Expo and looks forward to the next

The Tennant Creek Expo held over the 3rd and 4th of April has again proved to be a huge success for all participating businesses.
Congratulations must go to Liz Bryce, Manager of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tennant Creek and the executive members of the committee. The hard work and dedication in the lead up to the event is greatly appreciated by all. The enthusiasm led to the residents of Tennant Creek being able to enter one hall and experience the buzz of a large shopping mall with twenty different specialty shops exhibiting their wares.
The local and Alice Springs businesses and NT Government Departments that exhibited at the Expo undertook the event knowing that it would cost them in time, wages and site costs, however, the exposure of their products and services reached a greater than normal volume of customers and the flow on effects of the Expo are still being felt in some of the businesses. Some businesses reported turnover in excess of two weeks normal turnover in the day and a half of the Expo. Congratulations to all concerned.
Special mention must go to Anyinginyi Congress in the professional way they went about educating the public on safe sex and dental health needs. There are a lot of children in Tennant Creek that now have new tooth brushes.
One of our local businesses was successful in gaining an agent and distribution network of his locally made products in the much larger regional centre of Alice Springs. Congratulations to Daley Concrete and Garden products.
I personally feel that this should be an annual event as it keeps creating opportunities for the local business community. We have proven that we as a local business can compete in price, service and product range with the larger centres. Remember our motto, "Buy local and create jobs for our kids."

Let's have drinking water and public toilets
near the main street

Maggie Hickey, Member for Barkly

What a relief the cooler weather is with us at last. The past season seemed extremely long, dry and hot. Many constituents come into the office looking not only for assistance with issues but for that very basic commodity - a drink of water. Others often ask to use the toilets.
Many people live on the outskirts of town and have to walk everywhere. Carrying shopping and coping with small children as well, it's hardly surprising that they get caught short sometimes!
I know all the arguments against having public toilets in the main street - nowhere to locate them - too expensive - too difficult to keep clean. I believe all those problems could be overcome and what a bonus it would be for the town.
More on water - following the latest budget, all water bills are set to rise on 1st July by 15%. A big hike, especially for those of us who enjoy our gardens. Now's the time to be considering arid zone planting. I'd also like to see some sensible policy work on using gray water for gardens in urban centres. Its crazy to tip all our waste water down the drain.
We may not have much of a wet season in the Barkly, but what rain we do get certainly helps churn up our bush roads. One piece of good news from the budget (and there wasn't much), is that Canteen Creek will at last get a new airstrip. I've been campaigning for this to happen for years. The Canteen Creek community is hundreds of kilometres off the bitumen and in wet weather, the road deteriorates fast. Emergency medical evacuations are often possible only by air. The new longer, better located strip will allow night landings and safer access for all aircraft.
The Department of Lands, Planning and Environment is undertaking several important projects on what and where our water resources are. One project aims to provide an overview of groundwater resources suitable for development as horticultural water, along a 50 kilometre corridor either side of the Stuart Highway from the South Australian border to Tennant Creek and as well a large regional investigation is being considered for the western edge of the Barkly region.
It's likely that a very large groundwater resource, suitable for horticultural use, may exist in similar geological formation to the high yielding Tindal limestone which provides water for most of the horticultural development in the Katherine region. Anyone seeking further information should visit the electorate office to take a look at the maps.