There appears to be a push coming from the liberal government to establish a city in the Pilbara.

At the opening of the Zone Conference in Perth at the University of Western Australia, Premier Colin Barnett commented that it would be unacceptable not to develop the north west of the state.

It seems that big corporates like BHP & Rio Tinto are keen to have services closer to all their mining action. The state government is chasing the federal government for a prepayment to kick start the project.

Ken Perry, managing director of Brandrill Ltd has prepared a discussion paper on the matter suggesting that there should be plans put in place to develop a city to be home for 1 million people.

The deputy managing director of CITC Pacific said that his company is building a giant desalination plant capable of producing 51 gigalitres is expected to produce 25% excess water. This excess water will be available to any major human population that emerges in the area. 

There is currently a global high speed rail explosion with many first world countries expanding or developing high speed rail networks.

This week, the Chinese government awarded a $4 billion contract to build 80 high speed (236 mph maximum) electric train sets for the new 3,700-mile-long high speed train network it is building. Half of the contract went to Bombardier Sifang, a Chinese joint venture with Berlin-based rail giant Bombardier Transportation. The company will begin delivering the trains in 2012 and finish by 2014— boom, done.

Russia is taking the plunge into high speed rail as well, spending nearly $1.5 billion to upgrade 401 miles of track between Moscow and downtown St. Petersburg, and buy eight electric Sapsan trains made by German conglomerate Siemens (ETR: SIE) with a top operating speed of 217 mph. Four runs a day will make the trip in less than four hours, compared with an average five hours to make the trip by airplane, including the time wasted getting to and from the airport and running the check-in and security gauntlets.

France already has the wonderful 200 mph high speed TGV network, with 1,100 miles of track, more than 400 trains, and the third-highest ranking of rail passengers per year, behind Switzerland and Japan.

Perhaps the population in WA does not warrant a high speed rail network just yet but as we expand our population along the coast between Kununurra and Albany we should expect to see a high speed rail network emerge as the longest single high speed rail network on the planet. The potential for powering the network with clean energy sources such as solar, wind, wave & geothermal is a reality too.

Smart cities of the future are being built now. South Korea's Songdo and China's Meixi Lake exemplify the design features that will distinguish our Western Australian cities of the future. These new cities are nearing completion in what are multibillion dollar builds that incorporate intelligent infrastructure and eco vibes.

Songdo is a modern mega structure marvel built on what was once an expanse of mudflats.  Presently this new city that lies fifty kilometres south west of Seoul is forty percent complete. It is now dotted with more than one hundred high rise buildings including a 7,800-person apartment complex, a massive convention centre and a Sheraton hotel. Completion date for the city is set for 2014 with a final price tag of 35 billion US dollars making it the largest private real estate project in history.

Backers of the Songdo project include Morgan Stanley, Gale & the Korean steel maker Posco. All are betting that the city will become a trading hub linking Tokyo & Shanghai.

The city will conform to the U.S. Green Building Council's energy-efficient L.E.E.D standards; all buildings are incorporating special window glazing and ventilated double facades. Grey water and rain will be collected for irrigation and use in cooling towers. A network of underground pneumatic pipes will move solid waste, reducing the need for garbage trucks.

From a transportation perspective the city is already offering car sharing, water taxis, bike rentals and buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

An amazing 40% of the city space is allocated to greenery & vegetation including parklands & play areas.

Data networks developed & deployed by Cisco link every facet of the city including schools, stadiums, municipalities and the utility grid.

Cisco views Songdo as a model it can replicate around the world. It plans to build a global centre for "intelligent urbanization" and the replicate the solution in new cities as they are built.

We can certainly expect many of these intelligent city themes to find their way into new cities built in Western Australia.

There is a growing groundswell of support for a major population centre in the Pilbara. The Pilbara city would provide the infrastructure and facilities to support the people needed in the mining industry in the area.

Sam Walsh, CEO of Rio Tinto has fallen in line behind the idea. He said "In regions, such as the Pilbara & the Kimberley, we need to put our cards on the table and place a long term bet on the development of major communities".

The concept plan for the Ocean Reef Marina complex has been released to the residents of neighbouring suburbs for comment. The concept plan shows how the marina will extend from Hodges Drive along the foreshore, parallel with Ocean Reef Road up to Resolute Way.

The Ocean Reef Marina complex will incorporate first class boating facilities and infrastructure, quality marine recreational facilities and best practice environmental conservation and preservation.

The buildings set on the site will be predominately low-rise buildings of between one & three storeys with three landmark buildings of a sail shape design, being nine, six & five storeys.

The environmental and feasibility studies have confirmed that the Ocean Reef site just to the north of Perth has the necessary development potential.

Some of the facilities of the Ocean Reef project will include an ocean pool, open spaces, underground parking, a beach, a Bush Conservation Walk, helipad, sea sports club, boat pens, boardwalk, amphitheatre, memorial park, sea sports club, fauna underpass, central pier, marine museum, lookout, water park & playground, landmark, island groyne, floating jetty, boat ramp, boat trailer parking, super yacht berths and artificial reef.