In a long-forgotten New South Wales referendum in 1967, the citizens of northern NSW were asked if they wanted to break away and form the proposed new state of New England.
This was the climax of a campaign that had ebbed and flowed for more than 50 years, beginning with Country Party leader Earl Page in 1917. The referendum result in 1967 was close, and the proposal was just defeated.
Perhaps now, 53 years on from that referendum, it may be time to re-examine the position of some of our state borders. The pandemic has highlighted the absurdity of some of the boundary lines drawn up 120 years ago.
At the time of federation, because the settlement was sparse, future problems were not obvious. In the south, much of the Victorian/NSW border follows the Murray River and cuts through the cities of Albury-Wodonga, which in 1901 would have been small villages on either side of a river crossing.
In the north, the same would have been true for the Gold Coast-Tweed City twin city, which is bisected by the Tweed River.
Many of the residents of these twin cities, cross the state border regularly to work, attend school or access critical services, such as hospitals. COVID-19 has highlighted the absurdity of having an artificial checkpoint in the middle of densely populated urban areas. Not only have these caused frustrating traffic delays, but some people have almost died trying to access critical medical care across the border, but become stuck in very slow lines of traffic.
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Tragically a Ballina mother who was about to give birth lost one of her twins, when the absurd Queensland border restrictions required the flying doctor to take the critical case to a hospital in Sydney, instead of much closer Brisbane. The time delay was critical, with the family left devastated.
One positive that could come out of the pandemic would be a reasonable adjustment of Australia's borders away from major population centres. Our northern border with Queensland could be moved south, away from the Tweed Valley and start in the sparsely populated forests north of Grafton. Our southern border could be moved north of the Murray River Valley to the agricultural lands between Albury and Wagga. Or perhaps the whole of the Riverina should be ceded to the geographically small state of Victoria? When I lived in Wagga, I discovered that the region looks to Melbourne, rather than Sydney for some essential products, services and football teams.
Similarly, Broken Hill and the western Murray valley towns are in the ambit of Adelaide, rather than Sydney. There the South Australian border could be shifted east into the sparse desert lands and provide some boost to the always struggling South Australian economy. Such changes would make the size of the economy and population of NSW. Still, as NSW makes up one-third of Australia's GDP and population, these adjustments should not be too difficult.
There is a provision in our Constitution for the creation of new states. The founding fathers always hoped that New Zealand would join our federation in 1901. The State Circle in Canberra, which encompasses the federal parliament, has seven-spoke roads coming off it and these are all named after the state capitals, except Canberra Avenue. This was initially earmarked as Wellington. Some of us still live in hope, that our cousins across the ditch will eventually join Australasia.
There is a provision in our Constitution for the creation of new states.
However, the best chance of creating a seventh state would be the formation ofCapricornia. Its southern border could follow the Tropic of Capricorn and take in northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and the top end of Western Australia.
Our far north is crying out for development, and our current arrangements aren't delivering this fast enough. Given that our trade, defence and national security arrangements in the new century, are increasingly focused on the Asian and Indo-Pacific region, the time for a new northern state may have arrived.
Capricornia's population and economy are relatively small, but the growth potential is huge, given the right conditions. The region I have described is already responsible for 40 per cent of Australia's exports, including all of our iron ore, natural gas and beef. Its tourism potential on the doorstep of Asia is enormous. This tropical region has much higher rainfall than the rest of the country, and it could be a new food bowl for Australia and our rapidly expanding export markets to the north.
There is already a parliament and territory administration in Darwin, and excellent transport links by rail to Adelaide, and by road into Queensland. Externally, excellent port and aircraft facilities in the proposed capital, link Capricornia to the world economy. All that is needed is a national vision for our underdeveloped north, and the political cunning to sneak the idea past the state governments in Brisbane and Perth.
Otherwise, there might be a real border war.
