SPECIAL REPORT: Western Australia is a place best known for what it does below ground level, but entrepreneur Chris Hill believes we should look to the stars for the state’s next big opportunity.
A chronic sufferer of its remoteness, the increased connectivity of the 21st century is creating possibilities for Perth to offer local smarts to far-flung problems.
One big promoter of Western Australia’s potential is entrepreneur Chris Hill, who co-founded satellite communications business ITC Global in 2001.
ITC was sold to Panasonic in 2015.
Speaking at a recent Western Australian Information Technology and Telecommunications Alliance panel event about the space industry, Mr Hill said Perth should become a regional hub for satellite communications, with the potential to grow an associated ecosystem.
An example would be autonomous mining or remote control of operations, where Perth has already built prolific capability through the mining and oil and gas industries.
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That requires long-distance links from Perth into the Pilbara, but the next step would be to cross continents, he said, arguing that resources businesses with operations in Africa or South-East Asia should control those facilities from Perth.
The biggest benefit for companies basing operations out of Perth was that the capability required to remotely operate mining equipment was already well established in the city thanks to the operations of big miners such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.
Another major consideration would be that the country had a politically stable regime, Mr Hill said.
Pinjarra-based Murray Engineering has already made moves in this space, developing technology to control machinery in mines in Canada from its headquarters in WA.
Regional vice president of Luxembourg-based satellite communications business Intelsat, Terry Bleakly, also advocated for Perth as a good place for a satellite communications ecosystem.
“Perth is a great geographic location … there's great intellectual property that's been created through the mining industry, through smart agriculture, and oil and gas offshore,” Mr Bleakly said.
“Perth is a great centre point which can connect Africa, Europe and the Pacific Ocean region to this technology you've developed.
“You can hub it here, you can bring the data back here and mine it here.”
Data mining and processing would be one particularly fruitful sub-industry that could grow out of satellite-connected remote mining, according to WA chief scientist Peter Klinken.
Mr Klinken noted that two of the southern hemisphere’s most powerful computers were located in Perth, one at Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Bentley, and the other at DownUnder GeoSolutions in West Perth.
The DownUnder computer had a capacity of about 10 petaflops, he said, meaning it could process 10,000 trillion operations per second.
An upgrade of the Pawsey computer is planned for 2019, costing about $70 million, which will take the capacity at that facility to 15 petaflops.
Going global
Mr Hill has had a long career in satellite communications and technology, with ITC Global the most notable.
ITC had been created to link regional businesses, particularly those in resources, to satellite services for communications back to their head offices.
“We grew that business, between Australian and American investors … to become the largest provider of satellite communications to the mining community globally, third largest in oil and gas,” Mr Hill said.
The company was competing with some of the biggest names in telecommunications, such as Orange and BT.
At its peak, ITC global employed 205 people, and was dually headquartered out of Perth and Miami, in the US state of Florida.
His other main company, Aurora Australis Network, was founded in July 1997, a business where he still serves as managing director.
That company got its start with projects such as one linking libraries in the South West into the internet.
“Growing up in WA, I thought whatever we do here there must be a lot more of that somewhere else,” Mr Hill said.
“It’s not always the case.
“We are surprisingly ahead of the game sometimes, we just don’t know it.”
Mr Hill said he was thrilled with the commencement of the Australian Space Agency, which was incorporated in July
“It's really good to see the excitement … of the people around in the industry who are without exception welcoming the arrival,” he said.
Mr Hill is vice president of Western Australian Information Technology and Telecommunications Alliance, a role he hoped he could use to advocate for opportunities in communications and technology.
