Oakajee - Gateway to the Mid West of WA

The picture shows a barren, man made port facility built up against the coastline about 20km?s north of Geraldton. Ultimately, this $4 billion port & rail facility will completely transform the region into an industrial and transportation hub built to service the export of iron ore and other raw materials from the mid west.

The requirement for power and water to drive the expansion of industry and transportation in the Oakajee precinct will result in the development of some significant solar & wind energy sources as well as more desalination plants. The SKA Project in the same region will only add to energy demands and also ensure that some significant continental bandwidth (for transporting digital data from the SKA Radio telescope) becomes available in the region.

The development is expected to drive significant human resourcing requirements in the area with 4000 direct jobs to be created annually and a potential population expected to top 100,000, up from the existing 30,000 in Geraldton. From a long term sustainability point of view, Geraldton is in the enviable position of having plenty of space for building housing to house this future population but will still need to develop the requisite community infrastructure.

Probably, like Perth, Geraldton will be able to use resources as a springboard to developing education as a ?next step? industry. Certainly the industrial development and SKA Project will bring plenty of scientists and engineers into the region.

Ultimately, if all the pieces fall into place, Oakajee will shift the centre of Western Australia's economic gravity further north.


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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School's over - Learning Spaces in WA in 2020 - An Imagining Exercise on the Future of Learning

Ok, so this report is actually in relation to Europe but we can consider it relevant to the future of education in Western Australia too.

Click to access the Learning Spaces report


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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First telecommunications, then financial services, finally education

What the digital world and the internet touches must bow to the power of the law of diminishing marginal cost. Telecommunications have already passed through that first phase where it is now possible to communicate with anyone around the globe for an effective cost of zero. Not long ago, realtime communication would cost in the order of $'s per minute. Bank financial transaction costs are also near to zero with accounting compliance costs ready to follow suit. With powerful new tools, creative ideas and growing bandwidth per user, the way education is delivered & consumed is on the verge of a revolution. This is ultimately good for humanity but will feel like a crushing blow for every educational institution that relies on massive physical infrastructure.

Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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C2030 Broome - Disadvantaged Youth & Social Programs

Tess White from a youth social action group, Midnight Basketball presented a topic on the importance of investing in young people. Her group, Midnight Basketball have a unique program that delivers specialised education to disadvantaged youth via way of community engagement on topics such as health, home economics and how to find a job.

The importance of this topic at the C2030 Broome summit was particularly relevant in the Kimberleys and Broome where there are higher than average numbers of disadvantaged youth scarred by drugs, alcohol and a lack of education.


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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Why Western Australia Will Eclipse Dubai

We’ve all marvelled at the mega scale engineering projects that have defined Dubai and the United Arab Emirates over the past decade including artificial islands, massive skyscrapers rising up out of the desert sand and huge indoor snow ski fields but much of this development has been nothing more than an outpouring of the egotism of a bunch of middle eastern would-be-kings and a complete misallocation of resources. Not only are these megaliths a symbol of excess & misallocation, they are also the product of an exploited and downtrodden expatriate workforce.

 

It is the people of a nation that hold all the promise for the future and Dubai is now an emptied out husk with their airport littered with cars left behind by fleeing citizens and foreign workers afraid of the terrors of Sharia law as the leave behind unpaid loans in the wake of the recent financial meltdown.

 

Hopefully we the citizens of Western Australia will have watched and learned from the downfall of the UAE and Dubai. Perhaps we will invest wisely in educating our young people and refrain from exploiting the poor and the downtrodden. After all, when the minerals are leached from the ground we will have to make do with the imagination of our citizens.

 

Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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