The Federal Government has announced a $200 million funding package for WA regions, including housing, infrastructure and port upgrades in the State’s north, as well as regional support for housing across the Wheatbelt and Greater Albany areas.
The funding is set to benefit businesses and communities - particularly in the East Kimberley and Pilbara regions; cutting costs, boosting productivity, providing jobs, and improving the resilience of WA supply chains - including for clean energy and green fuel projects.
The Government said the package would help ease the housing crunch across multiple WA cities, as well as boost community infrastructure.
It’s set to create 1367 new homes across the state, with almost $90m for projects that will deliver critical infrastructure such as water, power and roads, including:
- $32.8m for the Wheatbelt Regional Housing Initiative to unlock over 400 homes across 10 shires in the Wheatbelt region
- $22.1m to unlock 591 new homes in Karratha
- $14.2m to unlock 86 new homes in a new development in Lockyer
Projects - such as cultural and sporting hubs, town precincts and parks - will aim to improve the lives of locals in the regions.
This includes $22.8m from the regional Precincts and Partnerships program as well as over $89m from the Growing Regions program for the East Pilbara and Kimberley around the regional hubs of Newman, Kunnunurra and Wyndham.
The Housing Support Program is one of a range of measures designed to help achieve the ambitious national target of building 1.2 million new, well-located homes over the next five years.
Boon for mining and clean energy
A slice of the pie also includes a “First Port of Entry” funding package for three critical ports in WA’s north, where port traffic is set to double by 2033.
The Government says applications for expanded border services at Wyndham, Ashburton and Dampier have been given the green light, allowing goods subject to biosecurity and other controls into and out of Australia.
“This will allow for more direct international shipping, meaning businesses and industries in the north will be able to import and export goods closer to their operations, without having to transit through ports further way,” it said in a Thursday press release.
The announcement builds on a $115m government commitment towards upgrades to common user port infrastructure at the Port of Dampier.
It will complement an ongoing >$500m upgrade to the Tanami Road - a vital 1,035km-long transport connection linking Alice Springs in the NT to WA’s Great Northern Highway near Halls Creek.
Emerging critical minerals hubs such as the West Arunta - where the largest niobium discovery the world has seen for the last 70 years in WA1 Resources’ (ASX : WA1) 200Mt Luni deposit - are set to benefit from the upgrades.
So too will a $3 billion proposal for a clean energy hub that would extend from Lake Argyle, through Kununnurra and up to the Port of Wyndham.
If developed, the Aboriginal Clean Energy Partnership’s (ACE Partnership) East Kimberley Clean Energy project will see a ~2,000-hectare solar farm developed on MG Corporation freehold land near Kununurra.
The resulting solar energy (~1,000MW) will be combined with water and hydro energy from the existing Ord Hydro Power Plant at Lake Argyle to produce green hydrogen to the domestic and international markets.
“Regional WA is a beautiful place to live, work and visit, and my government wants to ensure it has the housing and amenities it needs to continue to grow and thrive,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
“We always look for ways to support businesses and communities – which is why the changes to First Port of Entry will make a huge difference across the East Kimberley and Pilbara, shoring up local jobs and supply chains.”