MEET KARRATHA - Boom Town in North West Australia

"MEET KARRATHA: The New Kid in North West Australia - a Contemporary Boom Town Seeking to Become a City" 

This upcoming book will answer likely queries from people in (and beyond) Australia as they plan to become business investors, company shareholders, workers in and backpackers visiting Karratha and the Pilbara to become part of the resources boom so they are thinking about the service town and wanting answers about this ‘new kid’ as a  new place, with lots of potential, that is being introduced to them. 

The book is being researched and written to help them take a journey to the town and understand how they might feel about the place during the visit as they make decisions to invest in it or buy shares in the companies who do business connected to Karratha but also how they might behave towards this geographically isolated town impacting on their economic life and decisions they might make as visitors or even as voters in the next election. 

Each chapter answers questions by providing the facts and the reasoned opinions of the author – Brent McKenna. In basing the book on these parameters, Mums and Dads around Australia might ask the questions below:

• What does it do and how does it spend money and behave in its spare time? 
• Is it doing a good job, getting a good education and does it have any qualifications?
• How much tension is there with “its parents” and competing interests?
• What is being done to deal with tensions and does it have good friends?
• What has been learnt from its elders, local heritage and past boom--bust scenarios?
• Does it lead or surrender to “heavies” (like big industry players and global economic conditions)?
• How does it deal with the heavy weights in politics and industry?
• Does it care about “friends” – residents, FIFOs, their environment and the things they need?
• Will it survive as it grows up and what might happen when finite resources are depleted?
• Is it thinking ahead and laying the right foundation for future commerce and its people?
• Can it change and develop skills within the resident population, create value adding industries and use renewable resources to sustain itself in future?
• What could be done to help and guide it towards a bright and prosperous future?

Whilst Karratha is an epi-centre of a major resources boom contributing substantially to Australia’s economic prosperity and the ability of governments to service public expectations and support private aspirations, one of the key motivators in writing the book was the comment the author had heard about Karratha being a ‘… place with no soul …’.

Consequently the research is also seeking to try to find out what this meant to people and to reach a conclusion about whether this observation was broadly accurate or not and, if so, what can be done to assist Karratha to find its soul and create the community spirit that might appropriately match its aspirations to be a city with a diversified industry base capable of being sustainable rather than simply being another Boom Bust Town (or Delinquent Teenager seeking handouts). 

The commentary of interested parties will be considered in the research process that is being undertaken to write the book. 

The Author is Brent J. McKenna who expects to publish the book  sometime in 2013 around September but no later than 19 October.