The Thousands

A friend was recently offered a research gig with UWA’s Professor of Landscape Architecture Richard Weller. When asked about the parameters of said research, Weller narrowed it down to, "Australia…the Whole of Australia. And the future…the whole of the future." Whoa!

Think The Yellow Pages, but lime-green and in hardcover and you have Boom Town 2050. Now think Fabio but with an IQ of 160. Voila! That’s Richard Weller. However, unlike Fabio, the professor can believe it’s not butter. His research told him so. It also tells him that Perth’s population is set to double to three million by mid-century. So the infrastructure, housing, energy-sources et al that took 190 loooong years to bang up, need to be smashed out again in a mere 40. Yikes. Lucky for us, Weller’s on the case.

Instead of bitching about Dullsville, he says Perth is bitchin’. We’re smart, we’re loaded and in the enviable position of being able to redesign our future and capably adapt to Boom 2.0.