The development of the north-west is firing people’s imaginations, especially when it comes to defence.
WHEN children’s author Captain WE Johns penned an antipodean adventure in 1955 for his popular character Biggles, the novelist could see the vulnerability in the vast northern reaches of Western Australia.
Tracking down a wartime foe, aviator-cum-law enforcement agent Biggles’ efforts to discover what East German Erich von Stalhein was doing in Australia took him across the region, from Broome to Eighty Mile Beach, out to the Monte Bellos and across to Darwin.
In doing so he discovered a good-old fashioned Cold War insurrection, with the nasties from behind the iron curtain revving up the indigenous people of the north to overthrow their colonial masters.
That may have been a unique approach to concerns about the vulnerability of the region, but more than five decades later there are many more imaginations running wild with regard to threats the state’s north-west may face.
While the vastness and remoteness of the Pilbara may protect it, many see its vulnerability too.
A common concern is that the billions of dollars of infrastructure, much of it sitting isolated hundreds of kilometres off the coast, is virtually unguarded – with most major military and emergency response resources based outside WA.
Apart from the economic and environmental damage that could be inflicted, there are the pure commercial issues. What is to stop a tanker pulling up next to an unmanned oil facility, filling up and sailing off, like a massive version of a thief from a self-service petrol station?
Those with an eye to populating the area are equally creative in their thinking.
They see an opportunity to both develop the north, especially the Pilbara, by getting boots on the ground in the form of defence forces.
“The Gorgon gas deal was a game changer,” said KPMG demographer Bernard Salt, who is one advocate of a military presence as an economic driver, a population boost and a clear message to the rest of the world that Australia values its resources.
“What was that but a country shoring up its supply of energy?”
Mr Salt believes WA is particularly vulnerable as the world moves closer to a projected peak population of about 9 billion people in 60 years’ time and resources become scarce. He thinks the next decade is particularly important as growing nations position themselves to control the resources they need.
Part of the reaction to that is the belief Australia needs to grow its own population and inhabit regions like the Pilbara. He believes WA needs to double in size to 5 million people over the next four or five decades – which is actually slower growth than the past 50 years.
Mr Salt’s view, reported several times in WA Business News during the past 18 months, is that a major defence base is a logical element of that growth, to provide employment diversity, stimulate investment, and prove that we value the region.
“The way you actually do it is put a military base up there. Cockburn Sound needs to be replicated up there or equivalent Lavarack Barracks, 2,000 soldiers plus families and assorted personnel and you could actually boost that population from 10,000 to 20,000 like that but you need the resources of the Australian people to do that,” Mr Salt said.
“I don’t ever expect those people to fight. This is a statement by the Australian people about our claim to the resources and the sovereignty of every part of the Australian continent and the resources that lie off that continent.”
The idea of a military base in the north has got some traction.
Perth-based think tank Future Directions International recently gathered a collection of high-level security, government and corporate players to discuss ‘The Pilbara Region’s Future Security Needs’.
Future Directions CEO, major general John Hartley, said the workshop process was started about six months ago when he was approached by a number of people who wanted to see if they could make a case to have a military establishment placed in the north-west.
“They quoted the example of Darwin where we moved 3,000 soldiers and 6,000 dependents in the early 1990s and before that in Townsville in the 1960s where something similar occurred,” he said.
Partly, the concerns were defence-related.
“But the second (reason) was very clearly to bring in a substantial number of people who would give a boost to the local economy, develop the infrastructure and the social networks and so on.
Major general Hartley said his research found there was little appetite for this idea in the military.
“This would be a cabinet level decision and would need a great deal of support before it occurred. Defence, I think, would say very clearly it is an expensive issue, there is no major requirement to move any significant military base at this time, as happened in the 1990s when we moved to Darwin because we had to move out of a major base on the outskirts of Sydney,’’ he said.
“It is probably not a very good idea from a retention point of view. In other words the area is not particularly developed for families in particular for them to feel that they would like to keep coming back there.
“Thirdly, from a purely conventional point of view, looking at today’s issues there is no significant military threat.’’
But major general Hartley said that was today and things might look different in a decade.
“There is little doubt that by 2020 this area will have developed substantially – it will be a major element of Australia’s economic development in the future; there will be significant population and infrastructure issues; and it will have a major role to play in Australia’s foreign policy,” he said.
“In terms of national psyche and national economy, it will have a much higher rating than it does now.”
Defence and security specialists not only confirm the reluctance to put a base in the Pilbara but also raise their eyebrows at some of the ‘threats’ that others worry about.
They point out that troop numbers stationed at Darwin are being reduced by as much as 1,000 because of the problems with keeping soldiers and their families in the region.
Worse than that, suggests one defence expert, the army fears that its highly trained and disciplined staff are already hard enough to retain and a base in the area would only create a new source of employees with all the right skills for mining companies to poach.
Another objection Defence has is that, despite its space and remoteness, the Pilbara’s land is difficult to access due to native title constraints. While this is inhibiting growth of towns where relatively small amounts of property are required, it is an even bigger problem for Defence, which needs vast tracts of land in which to practise the manoeuvres and tactics of modern warfare.
But a significant military presence in the Pilbara or even the western Kimberley need not be all about the Army. The most vulnerable assets are arguably offshore, which would make a naval presence an obvious candidate for relocation.
The WA Department of Commerce is known to be looking at a Pilbara version of Henderson’s Australian Marine Complex, offering a different mix of services than the southern facility.
Such a base is seen as needed in what has become a very active shipping area – something like 80 ships of various sizes are currently servicing the Gorgon project alone – without any dry docking or ship lifting options. Refits and maintenance often have to occur thousands of kilometres away.
The Montara drilling platform has also highlighted the need for closer emergency response capability. That accident required equipment to be brought from Singapore to attempt to control the subsequent three-month oil spill, and it is understood that all new exploration wells are being required by the federal government to show contingency plans for a spill of similar duration.
Ship berthing and port facilities for a naval and emergency response presence might also provide maintenance services for foreign navies such as the US, which regularly comes to WA for rest and recreation stopovers. One expert called such service provision as “the other R&R”, meaning repair and restoration of the military hardware.
Locals even see the opportunity for cruise ship berthing facilities as part of that – perhaps to encourage visits to the Pilbara’s extraordinary rock art on the Burrup Peninsula and wilderness areas such as Karijini National Park.
Finally, some security people wonder out loud if protection isn’t a commercial matter, given the value of assets in the north-west.
Of course all this is expensive. As Mr Salt mentions, it is nation building stuff that requires the Australian people to believe in it before they put their collective hands in their pockets.
“This state needs to think about the big picture,” Mr Salt said.
And what could more imaginative than that?
