Also interesting that Australia's population is now 28 Million. Which is a lot, but still doesn't put us in the top-50 nations by population.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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In the mid-70s, our population was smaller than South Australia (around 600k).
SA has struggled to be economically viable almost since the first settlers. While Perth might be shooting ahead now, I think it was on a similar trajectory to Brisbane for most of that time while Adelaide flatlined.. South Australia is a difficult place to maintain long term growth I think. On the plus side without the boom you don't get the bust and growth has its own challenges.
I think the WA government should designate another major city, and start investing now to build it out, otherwise our housing issue will be worse than any other city in the nation. Perth's shape (oval), and the lack of largish regional centres in this State will supercharge housing constraints if people pile in without major forethought by West Australians now.
In regards that, I think we should try for a major northern city. I listened to Ken Henry and he was pretty convincing on Port Hedland (i think) being developed as a major port to compete against Singapore, with it's major selling point being the avoidance of the constricting Strait of Malaka. Good for a less stable and unpredictable world.
Otherwise it would have to be committing to Albany or Bunbury becoming far more major than they are now.
An option would be investment in a Bunbury based rare earths hub, including mining company divisions headquartered there, mine sites, education, and all community services and housing all taken into account.
It would be a serious and highly contentious expansion of mining in the south west though. Serious preparation and protections for the forests would have to be carried out. After all these Alcoa debacles down in Pinjarra, i'm not confident thats possible.
I personally think our cities are ludicrously spread-out and we need to massively improve laws surrounding strata management to make apartment living better, and build for public transport, walking and cycling, and not cars as personal daily transport.
The data is in, traffic will never be solved without viable alternatives to driving.
You shouldn't need to drive literal hours to make it across a city.
The problem here is density and transportation. 3M people is nothing, just that with cars it becomes unmanageable.
Though, I am not personally knowledgeable about Perth, another centre may be warranted!
Agreed, although apartment living isn't the only option, and while it has its place Australians do it wrong, in my opinion anyway.
Problem is, a city like that is hard to impossible to do to the scale required, in the time required. With so much property already parcelled up and used for private purposes, already having been built on, not the least the cultural phenomenon that drives the need for detached housing.
For example terraced housing, like in the UK, would probably improve things massively, while still maintaining that front door and garden concept that seems very popular.
Yeah you make very good points. I do hope we can shift the culture to preferring walkable/bike-able/public transport oriented cities.
Port Headland doesn't have anywhere near enough water to support a major population. They're already looking at borefields and desalination as options to meet current projected population growth there. That's overlooking the fact that it would need major infrastructure upgrades.
Fair point. Theres not much up there for a reason.
I think it should be considered whether we need to overcome the barriers of the harsher environment to have a larger presence in the North of the State, for trade, security and connection to the world reasons.