Little Darwin has the obvious answer to the recurring blackouts infuriating the Top End. It is the brilliant White Hunter solution, dimissed out of hand when first suggested. Following Cyclone Tracy , Darwin was beset with frequent black outs.
During the hearing of charges against people involved in importing a large amount of marijuana from Asia aboard the vessel Marianna the power went on and off. The exasperated judge made some remark suggesting everybody should just sit there glaring at each other in the hope that the power would come back on .
When the former Brisbane ALP Lord Mayor ,Clem Jones, the man who eradicated Brisbane’s dunny cans, became involved in Darwin’s rebuilding , he was puzzled and irritated by the frequency of the power cuts , there being no apparent reason for them. One day, about to enter the lift at the Travelodge, everything went dark as the lights went out. Infuriated, Clem, a man of action , jumped in a car, grabbed the surprised head of the Department of Works , and drove down to the power house , intent on lifting the lid on this sorry state of affairs.
Why has the power gone off ? Clem demanded. The Works and Jerks bod , an old Darwin hand , told him the generators had stopped working. Why? Clem, a trouble making southerner, insisted to know.
Happens every year – it’s the wet - was the answer . This was not good enough for Clem , he came away muttering about the way important utilities were run in Darwin and the attitude of people responsible for the services. Unfortunately, Clem’s power pack died years ago so he cannot come back and help re-boot the Territory’s power supply and its executives.
Therefore, Little Darwin declares the only real course of action to solve the power problem is to invoke the unusual solution proposed by the late Allan Stewart, known as the White Hunter. During the post Cyclone Tracy debate in the NT Legislative Assembly about the vexing power failures , politically minded Allan jumped up in the public gallery and shouted out the debate was hot air. The obvious solution: BRING A SUBMARINE INTO PORT AND RUN AN EXTENSION CORD FROM IT TO THE POWER HOUSE AND KEEP THE CURRENT FLOWING INTO THE CITY.
The Speaker of the House was not impressed by this first example of Territory lateral thinking on a large scale, so Allan limped out and left Darwin groping in the dark.
Seriously, with talk of putting noisy Collins class submarines up on dry land because of many problems, why not bring one overland on the Ghan from Adelaide , stick it in the hard , and use its massive generator to back up our dubious network. Sailors would be assured of a warm welcome as far south as Katherine . Of course, with wash aways along the railway line, care would have to be taken to prevent a submarine from falling off into the water and springing a leak.
