Names will never hurt

Or that's how the old saying goes.

But we got one wrong last week - we left out the word 'regional' in the new name for Kununurra Airport.

It is to be called the East Kimberley Regional Airport Kununurra (EKRAK).

The author of the name change was Cr Bill Barnes, who went on Waringarri Radio at the weekend and rightly gave us a good serve for this horrible omission.

Good on you Bill.

However, the question must be asked: "Why?"

Kununurra Airport appears in travel literature, pilots' navigation charts, road maps and references far too numerous to list.

Now all these will have to be changed as indeed will signage at the airport and local tourism literature.

All this for what?

To give a 'regional image'? To keep Wyndham happy? To take up the full width of a page?

If it is for a regional image then perhaps the name of the Shire should be shortened to the Shire of East Kimberley or even better, East Kimberley Shire.

This would only mean thousands of dollars in new stationary, signs etcetera.

Credit where it is due, Cr Barbara Johnson and Cr Jim Lewis voted against the change.

With the numerous problem issues that currently face the region, it would certainly seem to be a case of 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned'.