Outback Charleville (pop 3,335 in 2016) – eight hours west of the GXpress office, as it happens – has been a centre of activity this week.

In funds for once, as a result of proceeds from confidential “commercial agreements” with Google and Facebook, national broadcaster the ABC has opened a new bureau in the town.

The two new recruits in Charleville are part of a contingent of 55 additional ABC journalists appointed on the back of agreements made with the tech giants under Australia’s media bargaining code. Along with Charleville in Outback Queensland, the ABC is opening offices in Batemans Bay, Warragul, Carnarvon, Hervey Bay, Gladstone, Whyalla, Northam, Swan Hill and Victor Harbor, and says it is boosting numbers in nine existing bureaux (among them are Horsham, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Katherine, Esperance, Karratha, Longreach and Toowoomba).

But forget the distance for a moment, and to our shame, GX has never visited Charleville, or for that matter “neighbouring” Cunnamulla, where James Clark runs the Warrego Watchman, itself once the subject of an ABC documentary and a GXpress report or two.

It may be coincidence that there’s a federal election about to be called, but both Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud and ABC managing director David Anderson were in town yesterday for a tape-cutting and a photo opportunity.

In a Tweet afterwards, Maranoa member Littleproud – who is minister for agriculture and Northern Australia – says “we’ve fought hard to secure more funding for regional journalism” while media outlets have shut up shop.

“Today David Anderson and I opened the ABC’s latest bureau. Not in Brisbane - but right here in Charleville.”

Official comments would have you thinking that it was government money the ABC was spending, as in Littleproud’s comment that the opening “gives a sense of pride to the entire community, not just here in Charleville but to the entire region.”

He said he had “been advocating for this for a long time, but David (Anderson) made it clear to me that as soon as he had the financial capability he'd do it, and he lived up to his word."

Response in the Twittersphere was mixed, with one post urging that the ABC be scrapped so that business can “enter the picture on a level playing field”.

Penelope Arthur reminds the MP that the new ABC team has “some friendly colleagues just down the road in Roma, where Australian Community Media employs three full-time journalists”, and Ian Mackenzie urges that the government “should also be giving more funding to community-based papers and radio stations”.

Others asked “who got sacked in Brisbane” for this to happen, and @ItinerantCamel – who posts under the moniker, ‘Scotty's sorry you expect too much of him’ – points to the “hundreds of millions” Littleproud’s government has cut from the ABC’s budget. “This has decimated local content – the ABC couldn’t even cover the Queensland floods properly,” he says.

And the dialogue evolves into a discussion of printed newspapers: “Lol, you enabled a merger for a Murdoch so he could shut them,” @handawg88 Tweeted. “Own goal.”

Peter Coleman

Picture: The ABC’s David Anderson and MP David Littleproud open the bureau (photo ABC/Danielle O’Neal)