Connecting a stronger Australia - Perth

The American tech journalist Andrew Blum tells the story of the moment he became interested in the physical infrastructure of the internet.

Andrew was working away at home one day when an ominous message appeared on his screen.

One we all know and dread:

“The internet is not connected”.

Andrew called his internet provider and they sent out a technician. 

Who followed the cabling to the backyard and saw a squirrel running across it. 

“That’s your problem” they said. 

The squirrel had chewed through the cable. 

This got Blum thinking.

The internet is a “transcendent idea”.

A “set of protocols that has changed everything” about our lives.

It has changed how we work, and how we interact.

It has transformed economies.

It has even inspired revolutions. 

“It was unequivocally not” Blum figured, “something a squirrel could chew on.”

For most of us, it is surprisingly difficult to imagine the physicality of the internet. 

Some might picture a cloud. 

Others might picture an amorphous blob.

It is a famously intangible thing. 

And yet today we are reminded that, in fact, the internet is about as tangible as you can get.

In the case of the Aura Project, it is thousands of kilometres of fibre optic cable.

As you say, Steven, criss-crossing the nation, laid through:

 “... remote farmland, across rocky ridges, and alongside country roads.”

Connecting us seamlessly.

Instantaneously.

I remember when the criticism for Kevin Rudd’s vision for the NBN came thick and fast. 

It was dismissed as “essentially a video entertainment system.”

And there were confident declarations it would “turn out to be a white elephant on a massive scale.”

Thankfully Australians backed the NBN. 

And the NBN has been there for them. 

Building businesses. 

Connecting people. 

Supporting our economy.  

Defying the limits of distance.

In the west, we have always known just how important that is.

Here in Kings Park there is a statue of our state’s first Premier, Sir John Forrest.

Forrest long argued for better connectivity with the eastern states.

And his major passion was building a Trans-Australia railway.

His dream came to fruition in 1917, when the two parties working from east to west - and west to east - met for the first time.

Forrest declared our state’s “isolation had finally come to an end.”

Admittedly, the first full trip took just shy of 43 hours.

But I think it is fair to say Forrest would have loved seeing the west and the east connecting again.

And the lightning speeds we are here to talk about today.

The performance of the Aura Network is indeed extraordinary.

It is a significant step up in Telstra’s network capacity. 

In its speed. 

But, just as importantly, in its resilience.

It is that speed and reliability that our digital future depends on.

It will be the backbone of the digital industries and new markets of tomorrow, from quantum computing to cloud services and AI.

And it will continue to drive innovation across our globally-connected industries.

Whether that is mining, agriculture, health, education, defence or advanced manufacturing.

The Aura project has the potential to pump hundreds of millions of dollars back into the WA economy.

And in the process, it will bring our cities and regions closer to each other and the world.

I will end by looping back to Andrew Blum.

Who wrote:

“Everything you do online travels through a tube. 

“Inside those tubes (by and large) are glass fibres. 

“Inside those fibres is light. 

“Encoded in that light is, increasingly, us.”

Like John Forrest all those years ago, everyone behind Aura understands a simple truth: Australia is stronger when we are connected. 

Connected to each other, connected to opportunity and connected to the world.