NT business in review 2023: From royalty cliffs to Defence’s billions

From a failed major project to two iconic Territory businesses hitting the market, there is never a shortage of business news.

With the dust settling after Covid-19, the Northern Territory business community got back to the real struggle - making a dollar in a hostile land. Read how they did it.

JANUARY

The year begins

For management at Mitchells Adventure in Berrimah, 2023 began the same as 2024, with a break-in. Thieves took $15,000 worth of weapons including bows, crossbows, machetes, axes, bolts and arrows.

It was their eighth in a year. Management called for tougher penalties.

In what became another terrible year for retail and hospitality workers, shoppies union NT director Shlok Sharma said 85 per cent of Territory workers reported an increase in abuse in 2022.

Damp squib

Former Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and her then deputy and Mining Minister Nicole Manison at the soggy Core Lithium media event.

In torrential Top End rain, the first shipment of spodumene from Core’s Finniss Lithium mine was loaded for export at Darwin Port. 

About 15,000 tonnes of direct shipping ore was loaded onto the Rosanna before travelling to China via the Philippines.

Core secured other milestones in 2023 including its first shipment of locally manufactured spodumene concentrate to East Arm Port, relocating head office from Adelaide to Perth and commencement of early works on its BP33 underground prospect.

But as prices for the resource tumbled on the back of slower than expected uptake of EVs and an oversupply of lithium as more mines opened, Core’s market value tumbled to be the ASX’s worst performing stock in 2023.

The company called a halt to the BP33 early works in December and began laying off workers, then early January suspended work at its Grants mine, with up to 150 jobs lost.

Isn’t easy being green

Batchelor solar farm. Picture: Che Chorley

The road to net zero will be rocky for whatever political stripe governs the NT in the decade before 2050.

In May 2021 the government awarded a $113,000 tender to Melbourne-based Point Advisory to prepare a detailed analysis of the Territory’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Everybody, especially Kirsty Howie at the NT Environment Centre, reckons emissions will be whopping, which may be why the government hasn’t release its own report and their public greenhouse figures.

Against that backdrop, the spectacularly ambitious Sun Cable project went into voluntary receivership after Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forest, the two tycoons behind the project, fell out about its direction.

FEBRUARY

On the road, again

The Territory became a thoroughfare for WA truckies forced to detour thousands of kilometres as a result of flooding in remote northwest Western Australia.

Normally 2400km by truck from Perth to Fitzroy Crossing, the detour through South Australia and the Territory from Perth to Fitzroy Crossing added 6000-plus kilometres to the trek one way - 12,000km return.

The Great Northern Highway fully reopened in December but trucks were back on the highway by May.

Red herring

Project Sea Dragon became a raw prawn for the NT Government.

The Territory government said it would continue to invest in major projects despite the collapse of Brisbane-based Seafarms Group’s $1.5bn flagship, Project Sea Dragon.

Seafarms posted with the Australian Stock Exchange in February it had suspended trading and had appointed administrators to the troubled project.

The NT government spent $56m on public roads to support the project including $32.2m to upgrade Gunn Point Rd to two-lane sealed standard, dubbed by critics ‘the road to nowhere’. The commonwealth contributed $63.5m and the WA government $15m on support roads. Environment Centre NT called for a public inquiry into government spending on the back of the disaster.

The science

Australia’s national science agency identified millions of tonnes of carbon emission offsets from the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo basin prospect.

CSIRO research based on five Beetaloo production scenarios showed annual offsets could mitigate carbon emissions from the potentially billion-dollar on-shore gas project by between 6.6 million tonnes and 33 million tonnes a year.

School’s out

School students were been banned from Casuarina Square for a month. Picture: Supplied

The Territory’s biggest shopping centre hit students from six Darwin senior and middle schools with a 48-hour ban.

Casuarina Square shopping centre acted after 100 or more teenagers were involved in fights at the complex over several days in February. Schools were later banned for a month, with a warning misbehaving students would be permanently banned.

Casuarina’s owners plan to spend more than $20m this dry season enhancing the layout to improve security at the centre. The centre celebrated 50 years in Casuarina in May.

MARCH

Slow burn

Reports that NT critical minerals hopeful Arafura Rare Earths would start early works in March were greatly exaggerated.

While early works did begin, the much-hoped for Final Investment Decision, expected in 2023, has been put off until first half of this year.

The project has been on the drawing board for 15 years.

Didn’t age well

Ex-PwC Australia chief executive Tom Seymour standing in the new Darwin office. Picture: Floss Adams.

First reports of the tax leak scandal had only emerged weeks earlier when PricewaterhouseCoopers expanded its presence in the Top End with a new office opened in Darwin’s CBD.

Adding heft to the launch PwC chief executive Tom Seymour predicted the NT would play an increasingly important role in the company’s national portfolio.

What he didn’t predict, as the firm was being engulfed by one of the biggest corporate scandals in Australia’s history, was that he would soon play a far less important role with PwC.

Fishing business

A study put the value of recreational fishing to the NT economy at more than a quarter-of-a-billion dollars - and it could be far more than that.

ABARE’s National Social and Economic Survey of Recreational Fishers 2018-2021 showed recreational fishing supported more than 2500 full-time equivalent jobs and contributes $270m to the economy.

Proving there’s plenty of fish in the sea, commercial fishing delivers a similar economic return to the Territory.

Stalled again

A controversial development on Blake Street was delayed again.

A plan to build a multi-storey apartment block in The Gardens was rejected for a third time. Developer Kalhmera Pty Ltd wants to build Elysium Green, a seven-storey, 101-unit apartment comprising two towers at 4 Blake St, The Gardens, against the objections of residents.

In March the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal rejected approvals granted by the Development Consent Authority in 2021.

NTCAT’s determination contained good and bad news for both the developer and the residents, but the project has not been returned to planners.

New man at the top

NTLEA chairman Ken Vowles.

Former NT primary industry minister Ken Vowles was elected chairman of the NT Livestock Exporters Association.

A former Territory politician and primary industry and resources minister, Mr Vowles’ family has a long association with the NT cattle industry.

His great-grandmother Rosie Alexandria was born at and named after Alexandria Station; his grandmother Lillian Alroy was born at Alroy Downs Station; and he also has family connections with Brunette Downs and Corella Creek stations.

APRIL

Edging towards a cliff

In a moment of economic candour not usual for a politician, then deputy chief minister Nicole Manison told a mining forum the Northern Territory is facing a revenue cliff caused by the expected closure of key mines in coming years.

Launching the government’s Mineral Development Taskforce final report, which announced a change from hybrid to ad valorem royalties, Ms Manison told a Darwin Mining Club lunch that a change to the Territory’s royalties regime would mitigate the impacts of the “royalties cliff”.

ERA’s uranium mine near Jabiru shut in 2021 and Gemco’s Groote Eylandt manganese mine and Rio Tinto’s bauxite deposit at Gove are expected to be mothballed by 2030.

Krispy Kreme Kasualty

The Krispy Kreme Palmerston has been taken down.

Five Puma service stations across the Top End closed as OTR, the chain’s new owner, took control of the operation.

Changes were made to stores in Howard Springs, Humpty Doo, Palmerston, Nightcliff and Wishart Road.

Eight other Puma stores across the Territory closed later in the year while internal changes were made to the floor plan.

Within days of the April re-brand, energy giant Viva made a takeover bid for OTR’s parent company Peregrine Corporation, which holds the rights to donut-franchise Krispy Kreme in South Australia.

As a result of this, OTR’s plan to build a Krispy Kreme in Palmerston have stalled.

Phosphate approval

The NT government awarded two mineral leases to Perth-based company Avenira, granting exclusive rights to mine phosphate in the Barkly region’s Wonarah deposit.

Wonarah is one of the country’s largest potential phosphate projects, producing the highest grade resource in Australia.

The lease announced enables Avenira to extract a bulk sample for testing before kicking off operations.

The proposed mining venture has the potential to create up to 1000 jobs and generate billions of dollars in annual revenue for the Territory.

Avenira would emerge later as a key player in the Middle Arm precinct proposal.

Yank tanks delayed

The United States military tank farm at East Arm.

With a construction deadline looming, engineering contractor Saunders International was removed as lead builder for the $A270m US military bulk fuel storage facility at East Arm. US company Latitude 63 replaced Saunders in management and delivery roles associated with the project.

Originally scheduled for completion by September 15, it is now likely to be operational by April 2024. Wet Season conditions were blamed on the delay.

Cattle ban compo call

NT Cattlemen say the Federal Government is skimping on compensation.

Territory cattle producers and exporters called out the federal government for dragging its feet over potentially hundreds-of-millions in compensation owed in the wake of the 2011 Indonesian live export ban.

About 300 Territory cattle producers and other industry stakeholders are owed hundreds-of-millions of dollars – potentially a billion if including interest – after the federal court ruled the controversial live export ban was illegal.

The matter is still dragging on, with the commonwealth offering $215m, way short of the $900m compo and interest requested by the farmers.

If the government doesn’t settle in January 2024, the matter will return to the Federal Court for resolution.

Missiles on the menu

The federal government’s Defence Strategic Review outlined plans for the NT’s future role in the defence of Australia.

The Territory’s defence capabilities and fortifications would be bolstered through more than $3.8bn in federal funding to harden Australian bases.

The federal government announced Roberston Barracks would share $1bn with Townsville’s Lavarack Barracks while, RAAF Tindal was also identified as a critical base in the NT.

The review found northern maritime approaches remained vulnerable, resulting in “an imperative to urgently and comprehensively remediate this network” with priority given to critical air bases

The review also recommended Australia invest in missiles and long-range defence. US nuclear-capable B-52 bombers will be deployed to RAAF Tindal’s in coming years, while Robertson Barracks and HMAS Coonawarra will be upgraded.

MAY

Fracking green tick

Billions of dollars in potential revenue and thousands of jobs could flow from the NT government’s May announcement it would green light fracking in the Northern Territory.

Chief Minister Fyles and Deputy Manison announced Cabinet had the implementation report’s approvals green ticked through Cabinet more than five years after Justice Rachel Pepper released her study that said the NT could sustain fracking.

The report, chaired by respected former NT public servant Dr David Ritchie concluded all 135 recommendations from the inquiry had been implemented.

Tamboran’s big rig

Tamboran Helmerich & Payne rig at the Shenandoah South field near Daly Waters

Days after the fracking announcement, Australia’s largest and fastest onshore gas drilling rig arrived at Darwin’s East Arm Port en route to Tamboran’s Beetaloo gas fields near Daly Waters.

The Helmerich and Payne’s Flex 3 Rig was eventually transported by truck to the Beetaloo basin, but not before an anti-development protester padlocked himself to the unit. He was fined $300.

Tamboran said it had another four rigs on standby if additional wells were required.

Chief executive Joel Riddle described the moment as “go time in the Beetaloo”.

Airport upgrades

Darwin Airport manager Airport Development Group revealed hundreds of thousands of passengers could have travel plans thrown into chaos over the next two years as upgrades to the airport runway dragged on over consecutive dry seasons.

The upgrades are being project managed by the Department of Defence and tensions emerged with the Airport Development Group over the length of time the works would take.

Unsurprisingly, the DoD won, subjecting Territorians and visitors to two dry seasons of disruptions, due to finish by about October 2024.

JUNE:

Shambolic upgrades

Steve Gooley, owner and manager of Alice Springs’ Coles Complex, said a massive delay in the NT government’s CBD revitalisation project was heavily impacting business, describing the situation as an “absolute shambles”.

Mr Gooley said during consultation for the project, which was supposed to create more “shading and cooling” in Alice Springs’ CBD, businesses were told works would take 10 months, with an estimated completion date of late 2021.

More than one-and-a-half years after the expected completion date, the works were still not complete.

Let in a lodger

Charles Darwin University issued an urgent call for spare rooms and granny flats as hundreds of international students prepared to travel to Darwin in for the second semester.

Up to 700 foreign students arrived in Darwin over the next month, with hundreds finding private billots in Darwin and Palmerston.

Meanwhile the Charles Darwin University CBD campus is scheduled to open second semester 2024.

Middle Arm movers

The NT government announced the first set of proponents to anchor the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct.

The MASDP is 1500ha of industrial land designed to drive industry, exports, job creation and population growth in the Northern Territory.

Five companies were given “not to deal” commitments by the NT government over land at the precinct, meaning they had 12 months to decide whether to proceed with their particular project.

The five Middle Arm players are Total Eren, Fortescue Future Industries, Tivan, Tamboran Resources Limited and Avenira, with plans for everything from LNG plants to vanadium batter manufacturing if the precinct goes ahead.

The commonwealth has committed $1.5bn to the development of Middle Arm.

Big bang

The Territory government said it had begun discussions with the Defence Department about the possible deployment of long range missiles in the Top End.

Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in June, NT Major Projects Commissioner Jason Schoolmeester said the government had begun talks with the commonwealth about potential locations for the rollout.

“We’re meeting with Defence to try to find what their needs are, what the requirements are to help them locate in the Territory,” he said.

Announced as part of the Defence Strategic Review released in April, Canberra said it would spend $4.1bn to acquire more long-range strike systems and a missile manufacturing capacity.

The federal government’s shopping list includes $1.6bn for long-range strike capabilities including speeding up the delivery of extra high mobility artillery rocket systems – HIMARS.

For sale

Pee Wees owners Lily and Simon Matthews.

Two iconic NT venues - for exact opposite reasons - were put on the market in June.

Pee Wee’s at the Point – the NT’s reigning restaurant of the year – was selling for the first ever time.

After 22 years, co-owner Simon Matthews looked to offload the lease, which was renewed in 2018 after $2.5m was spent renovating the business, and still has 26 years to run.

Just out of Darwin, the Noonamah Tavern and Rodeo, famous for its frog races and bucking bulls, was also listed for sale. The award-winning pub has been owned by Tony Innes for almost two decades.

Mr Innes said he listed the business for sale to see what interest there was for the Territory icon.

Rocketing ahead

Equatorial Launch Australia's executive chairman and CEO Michael Jones. Picture Kelly Barnes

Approaching the first anniversary of Arnhem Space Centre’s inaugural launch in June 2022, Equatorial Launch Australia announced up to $100m in infrastructure spending was planned at the Nhulunbuy site over the next few years.

With further launches not expected until 2025, Arnhem Space Centre operator Equatorial Launch Australia is using the break to roll out infrastructure as part of project stages 2a and 2b.

ELA chief executive Michael Jones said the works would increase the space centre’s capacity to launch 2000kg payload rockets. Environmental applications to grow the space centre by 300 hectares with 14 launch pads was lodged with the Environmental Protection Office in November.