Marine redeployment

[CT Grognard]

Darwin and the Northern Territory as a whole is booming.

I read a number of articles in Monocle magazine last month about the boom, the average age in Darwin is now apparently 31. Darwin is becoming a major cultural gateway between the, shall we call it European, southern Australia and then Asia above.

Mining is massive, they even have the phenomenon now where employees are commuting to work by aeroplane - so-called FIFO, "fly in fly out".

They are revamping a casino there with the equivalent of something like $50 million to attract Asian big rollers, they recently built the Darwin Waterfront, all to provide entertainment to the youngsters coming in for work.

But apparently some of the locals who were born there don't like the new influx very much, they feel it's destroying the magic of the Northern Territory, which was the massive, open, sparsely-populated space.

But Australia is becoming a major regional superpower, once they bring the two new "amphibious assault ships" (Landing Dock, Helicopter) into service, it will be the biggest warships ever in the Royal Australian Navy and they'll be able to project serious power in that theatre. Furthermore, they are looking to get 12 additional submarines. The issue is going to be to convince young Australians to crew those ships, though - apparently a high-school dropout can earn AUD 120,000 per year driving a truck at a mine (for which there is a massive demand) but only AUD 40,000 per year serving in the Navy.