The Australian city of Karratha is bracing for a population surge driven by a massive investment pipeline in energy projects. This influx of workers is expected to put a strain on the city's already scarce housing supply, posing challenges for residents and businesses alike.
Australia is in a race to decarbonize and the country has never been hungrier for energy. Billions of dollars are flooding into solar and wind farms, hydrogen projects, and even more gas wells to fill the energy gap left by the phase out of Australia ’s coal-fired power stations. Firmly in the spotlight is the region's only city, Karratha , which according to the 2021 census has 22,000 residents. 'There’s an investment pipeline of $177 billion of projects in the region to the early 2030s.
That’s a massive undertaking for any region,' Pilbara Development Commission chief executive Simon Taylor said. And if all those projects go through to completion, it means an influx of workers to Karratha, more than 1,500 kilometers north of Perth, where rent is already high. This year the development commission examined each future project and added the expected workforces to that of current projects, including a fertiliser plant under construction on the nearby Burrup Peninsula. 'That would represent an increase of one third on the current population, so it's a substantial increase.' For service providers like Anglicare, Karratha's accommodation shortage has made hiring staff an uphill battle. 'It's not unusual for us to interview a great, well-qualified person who's interested in moving to the regions, for them to be successful in seeking the job but they're not able to take it because they simply can't find housing,' Anglicare north-west manager Carina Cooke said. Karratha has previously experienced periods of rapid population growth due to the iron ore industry and other resource investments including gas, with mining booms hitting the city in the 60s and early-to-mid 2000s. The thought of another boom is troubling for small businesses, struggling with what is colloquially known as the 'Pilbara tax'. 'We offer all our staff the overtime purely because we know how expensive it is in Karratha,' hardware store manager Zana Salta said
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