{"id":877377,"date":"2026-06-19T03:49:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877377\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:49:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:49:32","slug":"what-north-queensland-thinks-of-rineharts-idea-of-giving-islands-to-musk-for-satellite-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877377\/","title":{"rendered":"What North Queensland thinks of Rinehart’s idea of giving islands to Musk for satellite launches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s suggestion of offering up Queensland islands to Elon Musk for launching satellites and setting up microchip manufacturing has been met with a mixed reaction from local tourism and business groups.<\/p>\n

In a speech on Thursday, Mrs Rinehart said “sparsely or non-populated” islands off North Queensland’s coast should be offered to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk “at no cost” for building and launching satellites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tourism Whitsundays CEO Tim Booth said while the idea of giving up islands for rocket launches was a “novel” idea, there would be environmental considerations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tim Booth says the region’s tourism reputation depends on pristine environments (Supplied: Tourism Whitsundays)<\/p>\n

“We certainly get plenty of new ideas coming in every day on how to do activations [tourism events] out on our islands,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This one, I must admit, is something I’ve never come across before.”<\/p>\n

He said while there might be an assumption that uninhabited islands were “sitting around idle and useless”, that was not the case.<\/p>\n

“The number one selling point for us as a destination is our natural splendour.<\/p>\n

“Disturbing something like that for commercial gain seems like something that would be a little bit out of kilter.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Gina<\/p>\n

Gina Rinehart shared the stage with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson at a National Bush Summit in Townsville. (ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)<\/p>\n

But he agreed with Mrs Rinehart that any rocket launch would potentially “add a tourist attraction”.<\/p>\n

“[Rocket] launch windows stay open for a period of time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“What we’ve learnt is that it does draw a lot of visitors and they have a good length of stay.”<\/p>\n

The Whitsunday region is no stranger to rocket launches.<\/p>\n

Australian-owned company Gilmour Space Technologies launched its first rocket from Bowen in July 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Gilmour Space Technologies’ “Eris” rocket launched in Bowen in July 2025.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

CEO Adam Gilmour said securing approvals to launch rockets anywhere in Australia was a complex process.<\/p>\n

“It was a very long, multi-year process and we had to go through more hurdles than an Olympics hurdle event,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Adam Gilmour says launching from an island would be a logistical challenge. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)<\/p>\n

Mr Gilmour said while he understood there would be a safety benefit to launching a rocket from an island, the logistics involved would be much tougher than lifting off from the mainland.<\/p>\n

“It’s extremely difficult to transport the vehicles out there.<\/p>\n

“It’s so much easier when you can put in a truck, roll that out to the launch site and lift it off a crane.”<\/p>\n

Mr Gilmour added he would welcome more investment in the Bowen Spaceport, where their rockets launch from.<\/p>\n

“This is a great sovereign opportunity for us, so I’d love it if she could help us as well.”<\/p>\n

Wind towers scorned\"A<\/p>\n

Several renewables projects have been proposed across the Townsville region. (Supplied: Hancock Prospecting)<\/p>\n

Mrs Rinehart also took aim at a proposal to build wind towers near the small town of Prairie, 340 kilometres south-west of Townsville.<\/p>\n

The 800MW Prairie Wind Farm project has received federal environmental approval and sits close to the proposed CopperString 2032 powerline, linking Townsville and Mount Isa.<\/p>\n

In its place, she suggested offering Taiwanese microchip manufacturers “free land” with a “tax holiday, an international airport to go to and from, and a port”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Claudia Brumme-Smith says north Queensland should be “open for business and open for ideas”. (Supplied: Port of Townsville)<\/p>\n

Mrs Rinehart also said if the land at Prairie was not suitable, the region should “offer other choices nearer Townsville”.<\/p>\n

Economic development group Townsville Enterprise said the wind resources at the site were “extraordinary”.<\/p>\n

“We know that when energy is abundant and affordable, usually industry comes and settles there,” CEO Claudia Brumme-Smith said.<\/p>\n

She said the group “wasn’t prescriptive” about what the land should be used for but said she welcomed the “blue-sky thinking”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Queensland government has announced it will spend $420 million on the CopperString project over the next 12 months. (Supplied: CopperString 2.0)<\/p>\n

“I think Gina has really shaken us up a bit and is really thinking outside the box, and that’s what these forums are all about.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Townsville Chamber of Commerce said any proposal for chip manufacturing should go through a feasibility study.<\/p>\n

Silicon chip supremacy<\/a><\/p>\n

Silicon chips are now fundamental to modern life, incorporated into every facet of electronics and driving up share prices on Wall Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If the numbers stack up, we’d welcome any sort of investment that shores up manufacturing in North Queensland,” president Kevin Booth said.<\/p>\n

Mrs Rinehart mentioned Australia being a “safer substitute” for Taiwanese microchip companies.<\/p>\n

“It just comes down to ensuring that all relevant stakeholders get to put their thoughts forward,” Mr Booth said.<\/p>\n

“Then we make sure that any sort of investment supports locals as best as possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s suggestion of offering up Queensland islands to Elon Musk for launching satellites and setting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":877378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[131548,4740,356577,66,356581,356580,301709,301712,291646,50,655,356578,356582,356584,9547,2540,1593,356579,356583,74751,356585,29826],"class_list":["post-877377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-andrew-forrest","tag-australia","tag-bush-summit","tag-elon-musk","tag-eris-rocket","tag-gilmour-space-technologies","tag-gina-rinehart","tag-hancock-prospecting","tag-microchips","tag-news","tag-news-corp","tag-orange-bulldozer","tag-prarie","tag-queensland-islands","tag-satellite-launches","tag-satellites","tag-semiconductors","tag-tourism-whitsundays","tag-townsville-enterprise","tag-tsmc","tag-whitsundays","tag-wind-energy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116774736890629787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}