Council candidate Roger Higgins is looking to build a massive new road between Hedland and Alice Springs

One council candidate has a bold plan to connect Port Hedland and Alice Springs through a huge new sealed road he says will bolster the country’s tourism, economy, and military. Roger Higgins is a Port Hedland dentist and resident who has lived in town since 2012 and is making his second tilt for a spot on the Town of Port Hedland Council. This time around, he is running on an audacious proposal to build a mighty road to improve the connection between Australia’s east and west coasts. In August, Mr Higgins and retired geologist Christopher Towsey made a proposal to the Joint Select Committee of Northern Australia for a new road to be built through the Gibson Desert to Alice Springs. Mr Higgins said he realised how urgently a new road needed to be built after seeing the condition of National Highway 1 in the Kimberley during the wet season. During the committee’s public meeting, Mr Higgins said his proposed road was vital to maintaining the security of Australia. “We’ve made a proposal for a new national highway from Alice Springs to Port Hedland,” he said. “We believe that right now, particularly as a result of the destruction of the bridge at Fitzroy Crossing, this is something that is even more urgent than when we wrote the submission. “At stake here is the continued independence of Australia as we know it. “Now is the time for politicians to work together to develop and protect Northern Australia.” Mr Higgins said in the event of an invasion of Northern Australia during the wet season, Australian troops and military equipment would find travelling across the country difficult. Both men said the road could bring large economic growth to WA, and Mr Towsey said Port Hedland was selected because of the potential it had for trade. “What prompted us to select Port Hedland was the fact that it’s the closest port to Singapore,” he said. “Singapore is the largest containerised port in the world. At the moment there are 19 berths in Port Hedland servicing mainly the mineral industry. “Copper gets exported out of there, and lithium products as well. But if you turn Port Hedland into a container port then it’s the closest port to Singapore, so you’d minimise the shipping costs of getting containerised material in and out of Australia, both importing and exporting.” They also said developing the road would provide access to areas with mineral deposits, allow road trains to pass into northern WA during the monsoonal period, and provide economic development to remote communities in the Pilbara. Mr Higgins and Mr Towsey’s proposal is to use existing sealed roads from Port Hedland to Telfer. From Telfer, their plan would be to bituminise a road across the Gibson Desert and potentially link up with the Tanami road near Alice Springs. During the select committee meeting, the duo said a feasibility study would need to be done to calculate the cost but from their research, it could cost $13 billion. “You can’t do anything on this concept until you’ve done a feasibility study to try and accurately pin down the cost,” Mr Towsey said. “We’ve made a thumb-suck estimate of the cost based on what’s available on the internet but it really needs to be quantified accurately. “You can only do that once you’ve done at least a preliminary road design so you can quantify the volumes of material to be shifted and the number of hardware items like concrete culverts that need to be installed.” Mr Higgins said if he was elected to the council he would be able to lobby politicians to provide funding for the project. He said his contribution to founding the Hedland harbour tour was proof of his ability to deliver marquee projects for the town.