As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, March 18​on March 18, 2025 at 5:55 am

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The first image of space taken by a telescope in WA’s Mid-West – which will be the most powerful of its kind in the world when complete – has captured dozens of galaxies with supermassive black holes raging at their hearts.

When complete, the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope will comprise more than 100,000 antennas at the WA-based SKA-Low and several thousand dish antennas at the SKA-Mid observatory in South Africa.

The telescope will, as its name suggests, have a total collecting area of one square kilometre.

It’s still under construction, but an image captured using just 1024 – or four connected stations – of the 131,072 “Christmas tree” antennas planned for Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, at the CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, has given a hint of what will be possible in the future.

Dr George Heald, the lead commissioning scientists for SKA-Low, said the quality of the image was “even beyond what we hoped for using such an early version of the telescope”.

“The bright galaxies we can see in this image are just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

“With the full telescope we will have the sensitivity to reveal the faintest and most distant galaxies, back to the early universe when the first stars and galaxies started to form.”

The image in question captures about 25 square degrees of sky – an area equivalent to roughly 100 full moons.

Within that space can be seen about 85 of the brightest galaxies in the region, each boasting a supermassive black hole.

Scientists believe that, when the SKA telescope is complete, it will be sensitive enough to capture more than 600,000 galaxies in the same area of sky.

A 37-year-old man has died after his ute crashed in the state’s South West on Tuesday morning.

Police say the man was driving south on Ferguson Road in Ferguson at 5.30am when the Mitsubishi Triton left the road and hit a tree. The driver died at the scene.

The death follows a horror weekend on West Australian roads which claimed the lives of seven people, including three friends killed in a crash east of Armadale on Sunday.

Two boys aged 16 and 17 were also killed after the motorcycle they were riding and a ute collided on North West Coastal Highway in Roebourne, in the Pilbara region.

Speaking to media on Monday, Acting Road Police Commander Mike Peters said officers were at their wits’ end in their efforts to stem the growing road toll.

“We are doing everything in the enforcement space we can across both the metropolitan area and Western Australia,” he said.

“I can’t sit alongside you in your vehicle and make choices for you. That’s up to you.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has rubbished suggestions that his state colleagues’ poor results at the March 8 election bode poorly for his own federal campaign.

Dutton flew into Perth this afternoon to attend a fundraiser for the Liberal candidate for Swan, Mic Fels, and held a press conference in Mindarie in the seat of Pearce with the candidate there, Jan Norberger.

The WA Liberals performed much poorer than expected at the state election, with only 7 per cent of Labor’s 18.3 per cent swing going toward them.

But Dutton said a similar swing would return his party to government.

“If we can get an 8 per cent swing across WA in the federal election, Jan [Norberger] will be elected, and many other candidates elected and that will be a great day for our country because we’ll be able to form a majority government,” he said.

Dutton praised WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam’s leadership during her campaign, and said West Australians knew the difference between Roger Cook and Anthony Albanese.

“People know that Anthony Albanese is no Mark McGowan, let alone Roger Cook,” he said.

“Anthony Albanese has done a lot of harm to WA. He’s done a lot of harm to the Australian economy, and we need to get the WA economy back on track, and really build and strengthen it into the future.”

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton is in Perth and will speak to the media at 2pm.

A 36-year-old woman who was walking in the southbound lanes of Tonkin Highway in the early hours of this morning is critically injured in hospital after being hit by a car, police say.

At about 4.10am, the woman was hit by a Ford Falcon utility. The driver was not injured.

Major Crash investigators are appealing for any witnesses to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report the information online at www.crimestopperswa.com.au.

A new report out today finds Perth’s new land prices increased 34 per cent last year, with the median now at $329,000.

Adelaide is now cheapest for new lot prices, at a median of $307,000.

UDIA’s annual State of the Land Report said the rise came down to supply issues.

CEO Tanya Steinbeck said demand for housing in WA continued to escalate as our population increased, while economic conditions remained strong and unemployment was low.

“It is critical that private industry is supported in getting on with the important job of delivering more land to the market, where it is needed,” Steinbeck said.

“While the new land market has been able to ramp up in the last couple of years, it is becoming more complex to bring large swathes of developable land to the market across the Perth Metro region.”

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Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has staunchly defended the government’s handling of Woodside’s North West Shelf extension proposal, indicating any delay was the responsibility of the WA government.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek deferred a ruling on the 50-year extension to the mega-project last month despite mounting pressure from business lobby groups to make a decision before the upcoming federal election.

The delay also saw the minister field criticism from her WA counterparts, with Environment Minister Reece Whitby pinning the blame on “nerdy little bureaucrats in Canberra”.

But Wong pointed out the federal government had the application for all of seven weeks, while the WA government had it for six years — a fact she revealed she had double-checked in preparation for this morning’s interview at Crown Perth.

She reiterated the government understood how important the resources sector was to WA, but said that the application had to navigate the appropriate process.

Wong refused to be drawn on whether a decision on the hub off the Burrup Peninsula in WA’s north-west would be made before the federal election, which must be held on or before May 17.

She also downplayed suggestions sections of the press, including media mogul Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media, wielded significant power when it came to placing pressure on the government to take action.

“I think ministers should exercise their statutory roles in a principled, considered way,” she said.

“And I’m sure Minister Plibersek will do that.”

The project, which is expected to generate 4.3 billion tonnes of emissions over its lifespan, would clear the way for its contentious $30 billion Browse gas project.

The comments come just months after the Albanese government held off on executing its promised overhaul of environment laws amid persistent opposition from the state’s mining industry, which received the backing of Premier Roger Cook.

Sticking with the announcement of WA Premier Roger Cook’s cabinet this morning, and the state’s leading public school body has welcomed the announcement of a new education minister.

State School Teachers’ Union WA president Matt Jarman said the union had been pleased to see public education receive considerable attention in the state election campaign, and welcomed the announcement Sabine Winton would take charge of the portfolio.

“Minister Winton is someone with extensive experience in the classroom as a teacher and as Minister for Early Childhood Education and in other portfolios,” he said.

“At a time when public education is in need of considerable and wide-ranging reform, we look forward to working cooperatively to deliver the solutions identified in the Facing the Facts report, the Department of Education’s own red tape review and the State Government’s agency review.”

Winton was a teacher for 27 years before entering politics.

Jarman said the union was also looking forward to working with former Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson to improve the TAFE system.

He acknowledged the work done by outgoing Education Minister Tony Buti (now the Attorney General) and the departing TAFE Minister Simone McGurk, wishing them well in their new portfolios.