clipped from: www.ntnews.com.au   

'Make Alice NT capital'

ALICE Springs should be the capital city when the Northern Territory becomes a State, a leading local government figure said yesterday.

And the town's former deputy mayor, Murray Stewart, said the new State should be called Central Australia.

Mr Stewart said Darwin was the Territory capital only because shipping was the key form of communication and transport when the NT was settled.

IT'S the closest town to every State capital in the country;

DARWIN'S weather is so violent that Territory Government infrastructure and communications are often at risk; and

THE name of Alice Springs is well known throughout the world.

"Everybody has heard of a town like Alice," Mr Stewart said.

"But mention Darwin in New York and people will start talking about evolution."

Alice Springs has a population of 25,000, compared to a combined Darwin-Palmerston population of more than 100,000.

But Mr Stewart said population was irrelevant.