There appears to be a push coming from the liberal government to establish a city in the Pilbara.

At the opening of the Zone Conference in Perth at the University of Western Australia, Premier Colin Barnett commented that it would be unacceptable not to develop the north west of the state.

It seems that big corporates like BHP & Rio Tinto are keen to have services closer to all their mining action. The state government is chasing the federal government for a prepayment to kick start the project.

Ken Perry, managing director of Brandrill Ltd has prepared a discussion paper on the matter suggesting that there should be plans put in place to develop a city to be home for 1 million people.

The deputy managing director of CITC Pacific said that his company is building a giant desalination plant capable of producing 51 gigalitres is expected to produce 25% excess water. This excess water will be available to any major human population that emerges in the area. 

Crisis, Opportunity & the New World Order - 8-10 November 2009

In the Zone is a major future international public policy conference initiated by the University of Western Australia. The conference will stimulate public debate  on the public policy, geopolitical and business challenges facing Australia and its major trading partners in China, Japan, India South Korea and South-East Asia.

Key themes include -

Australia's role in the Asian Century

regional financial markets in the new world order

foreign investment & sovereignty

media futures

cities & population health

higher education in the 21st Century

Pandemic management

Read more here

The bidding war is still underway between Western Australia & South Africa for the rights to build the most sophisticated radio telescope ever. The $2.5 billion device will be 100 times nore sensitive than any radio telescope built so far and will be backed and funded by a 19 country consortium.

The SKA radio  telescope will either be built in the Karoo or south west region of South Africa or in the mid west of Western Australia. The federal government has already committed $80 million to the Australian National Centre of SKA Science in Perth. The centre is a joint inititive involving both federal & state governments, University of Western Australia, Curtin University and CSIRO, and will be used for super computing purposes.