Why Australia's first submarine cable factory in Perth?

Australia depends on submarine cables for 99% of its international internet bandwidth, yet builds zero of those cables domestically. Perth is the natural location — closest Australian capital to the Indian Ocean cable routes, the major Asian-African digital backbone, and to the existing submarine sustainment workforce at Henderson. The factory makes Australia's strategic data infrastructure sovereign.

What is the Indian Ocean cable landing strategy?

Most existing Australian cables land on the east coast (Sydney) or Darwin. A western landing routes data via the Indian Ocean to the Middle East, Africa and Europe — diversifying Australia's connectivity. Perth's existing data centre infrastructure and the proposed landing point at Henderson make this the natural site for the country's first major Indian Ocean cable hub.

How does this fit with Cairns and Henderson?

Three sovereign cable sites give Australia complete coverage: Cairns (Pacific), Perth (Indian Ocean), Sydney (existing). Henderson hosts the sovereign cable-repair vessel that maintains all three regions. The combined network gives Australia genuine digital sovereignty — sourcing, manufacturing, deploying and repairing its own undersea infrastructure.

Growing Australia

Growing Australia is a practical platform for a stronger, more resilient Australia: 53 investments across six national priorities, designed to strengthen productive capacity, resilience and long-term living standards.

The complete long-term register has a central concept-stage estimate of $201.4 billion and is designed to be delivered gradually. A focused first-stage group is costed at about $10 billion, with the ledger, assumptions and evidence published openly.

Costing model
Citations and sources
Powering Australia
Making It Here
Cyber Australia
Feeding Australia
Our Neighbourhood
Building Australia