Western Australia is set to become the hub for radio astronomy research after an agreement to establish a radio astronomy park on Mileura Station, 350 kilometres north-east of Geraldton.
Western Australia is set to become the hub for radio astronomy research after an agreement to establish a radio astronomy park on Mileura Station, 350 kilometres north-east of Geraldton.
Science and Innovation Minister Francis Logan said the park would be a major part of the state government’s $7 million commit-ment to radio astronomy.
“Over the next five years, the 25 square-kilometre radio astronomy park on Mileura will be the site of globally significant radio astronomical research,” Mr Logan said.
The minister said the Mid-West region was an ideal location for the park as it was extremely ‘radio quiet’, with very little interference from activities that produce radio waves in highly populated areas.
“This makes Mileura a perfect place to locate facilities for Australian and international astronomers at the forefront of the radio astronomy research,” he said.
“The project has already attracted interest from radio astronomers around the world. Some are already carrying out research at the site.”
Mr Logan said negotiations were now under way with Wadjarri Yamatji native title claimant group regarding the site.
The radio astronomy park will also greatly enhance Australia’s bid to win the international $1.7 billion Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project. Australia is up against three other countries in South Africa, Argentina and China to construct the world’s biggest radio telescope.
“On all objective criteria, Western Australia has an excellent case – but there is some strong lobbying pressure being applied by competitor countries,” Mr Logan said. The venue for the 17-country international project will be announced later this year, with construction of the radio-astronomy park to begin in 2012.
Two sites were assessed in WA by the CSIRO’s planning consortium, including an area south of the Great Victoria Desert, 200 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie, and the Mileura station.
The telescopes used in the SKA project need ‘radio-quiet’ locations because the radio-wave receivers will be extremely sensitive to man-made radio signals. Institutions involved in the project include the CSIRO, the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and Swinburne University of Technology.
Last Sunday, Mr Logan met members of the international astronomical community in Europe to promote the state’s commitment to the SKA project.
The government also awarded $1 million fellowships in radio astronomy to Dr Lister Staveley-Smith of the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility in NSW and Dr Peter Quinn of the European Southern Observatory in Germany. The four-year fellowships are part of an effort to build and sustain world-class research teams and increase the level of funding for the state.
With the bidding war for the SKA project in full flight, other projects have helped in raising the profile of astronomy in WA and assisted in boosting the state’s chances of securing the project.
In November, the University of Western Australia purchased a robotic telescope built in the US to be commissioned in May. The $1 million Zadko telescope will be housed in an Australian designed observatory dome near the University’s Gravity Discovery Centre at Gingin and the Southern Cross Cosmos Centre.
