Push for a sealed highway across central Australia

A group lobbying for a sealed highway between Western Australia and Queensland says it needs state government support to get the project off the ground.

The Outback Highway Development Council is trying to secure funding to build a road from Laverton in the Goldfields to Winton in central west Queensland.

It is hoped the highway would provide a reliable link between a number of remote Aboriginal communities, as well as opening up central Australia to tourists.

The Council's chairman Patrick Hill says while recent meetings with the Federal Government have been positive, the project is now in need of State support.

"We've really got to get the whole project supported by the States and into the COAG agenda.

We need the State Government to recognise it as a high-priority project for each state and territory."

Mr Hill says the aim is also to get federal support.

"Put it in a category so that we can attract federal funding from some avenue and to do that obviously it needs to be recognised first as a road of national importance and it needs to get on that COAG agenda."

"With that also we want to see it upgraded to a road of national importance through the Minister Albanese's office."

We've got positive responses back about that already indicating that there's a need for it but obviously we've got to confirm that yet."

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Mon 22nd March 2010 - 11:53am