General News
26 March, 2025
Border mayors join forces to renew council alliance
The Mount Isa and Barkly councils will join a roundtable discussion later this year.
A chance encounter in the halls of federal parliament is delivering a renewed alliance between Mount Isa City Council and its Northern Territory counterpart.
Barkly Regional Council is an expansive local government area, which as its famous highway namesake suggests, connects the Queensland border with Tennant Creek and beyond.
Late last year, mayor Peta MacRae was in Canberra meeting with government ministers about the council’s economic diversification strategy when she struck up a conversation with the newly elected Barkly Shire mayor Sid Vashist about the similar struggles the neighbouring areas confronted.
It quickly became apparent that strength in numbers was a valuable commodity when lobbying Canberra and the pair committed to forming a cross-border alliance between the two local government areas.
It builds on work that had been briefly attempted about a decade ago, with some terms of reference drafted at the time but never formalised.
Cr Vashist has made the journey over the border twice this month as the two mayors have dusted off these proposal documents and begun formally designing an alliance pathway.
The mayors’ next plan is to host a cross-border meeting in Tennant Creek in the coming months, with cross-border commissioner Ian Leavers, Traeger MP Robbie Katter and NT state member Steve Edgington expected to attend.
While the exact details are still being discussed, it is understood joint infrastructure initiatives, such as lobbying for the construction of the “missing link” Mount Isa to Tennant Creek rail line, as well as tackling cross-border social issues, will be at the top of the agenda.
“Peta was strongly advocating for her region in Canberra, and we had an impromptu catch-up that is proving to be very positive,” Cr Vashist said.
“Peta served on the council that had attempted a cross-border alliance in the past, but unfortunately sometimes good ideas don’t continue – however we are working to reinstate this idea and take it forward.
“There are definite strengths in reestablishing and rejuvenating our terms of reference – there has been plenty of work already done in this space, so we are not reinventing the wheel.
“We are still in the early stages, it is an open dialogue, but we are very keen to see this happen.”
Cr MacRae said early discussions had focused on how to improve economic cooperation between the council areas.
“I think the initial intention of the alliance a decade ago was focused on the Mount Isa to Tennant Creek rail line,” she said.
“But we are going to look at the terms of reference to work through what other issues we might be able to work through, especially around economic cooperation.
“There are trucks from South Australia bringing copper for the smelter every day and freight is also coming across the border, so there are infrastructure issues to discuss.
“We also want to see what networking opportunities there are between our business communities and we have the social services element, so we are looking at ways to bring our housing and health groups together for discussions.
“There is a lot of work in this space that we can collaborate on, and I think this will be a very positive initiative for both councils.”