Officialdom has a wicked sense of humour when it comes to the remote town of Katherine in the Northern Territory.
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The NT has been convinced to help the eastern states of their energy crisis and open the taps on centuries worth of natural gas.
Although Territorians are famously suspicious of anyone "down south", as they call it, it just so happens their finances have hit a bit of a snag, well a lot of snags really.
They're broke. Really broke.
The NT is borrowing money at the moment just to pay the wages of their public servants.
When the Chief Minister Michael Gunner lines up at the ATM to extract his wages each week, he must worry about the "insufficient funds" warning.
The Territory would not exist without the generous support of other states and the feds in the form of revenue from the goods and services tax.
So when a massive project, like the multi-billion dollar Inpex project in Darwin was finished, now sending liquified gas to its owners back home in Japan, the NT economy sort of fell over.
In case you are wondering, there simply aren't enough tourists lining up to see crocodiles either.
So despite the enormous local opposition to opening up our pristine wilderness to gas development, the local ALP government was backed into a corner.
Other states "down south" have already banned "fracking", as they call it to extract the gas. Here, we had a long scientific inquiry which basically yes the people don't like it, but we reckon it's good to go.
Two gas companies, Santos and Origin Energy, are chafing at their drill bits poised to begin exploring again.
Many kilometres deep, into a rich deposit of shale (an example of which is pictured inset) at a place called the Beetaloo Basin, squirting water and goodness knows what else down the drill shafts to open up the rock fissures and allow the gas to flow.
Katherine is the closest town of any size near the Beetaloo. It is also a haven for anti-frackers, people were long-held views about opening up the Territory to a relatively short-term industry which they say threatens their pristine environment.
Last week invited guests were asked to sit down with a marketing company at two meetings in Katherine to form focus groups and say what they think about fracking.
At $100 a pop. Financed by our hitherto bereft NT Government.
Paying to ask Katherine people whether they oppose fracking is like asking Queenslanders whether they like beating NSW in rugby league.
Then to rub salt into the wound, the NT government has released a map of where fracking would be allowed in the NT.
Settled areas, national parks, and a lot of places in the top end are protected, but sadly not Katherine.
The township is, not the municipality.
A fracking free-for-all on the town's doorstep.
Who said bureaucrats didn't have a sense of humour.