Technical tours will be offered on the day before (Monday 22 August ) and the day after (Friday 26 August) the Conference so that delegates, particularly those visiting from overseas or interstate, will have an opportunity to see some of the new and innovative projects being undertaken in Western Australia.

Most of the host sites will be able to demonstrate how spatial information played a role in progressing the projects on display. Delegates are offered the option of full and half day tours, and most will incorporate a visit to several sites.

TOUR ONE - HALF DAY

Supercomputers and Satellites

THIS TOUR IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Date:           Monday 22 August

Run Time:    approx. 4.5hrs

Depart Perth CBD - 9:00 am

Return Perth CBD - 1:30 pm

Cost:           (includes transport) $25-45 pp (based on 20 attendees)

The first stop for this tour will be the iVEC facility in Kensington. iVEC provides supercomputing, data storage, scientific visualisation and eResearch services to researchers in Western Australia.  The tour will provide an overview of these services and their future, including iVEC’s involvement with the proposed Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, and finish with 3D visualisation of research projects from Western Australian researchers.

The next stop will be at Landgate's Satellite Remote Sensing Services (SRSS) facility, which is co-located with CSIRO in Floreat. SRSS operates at the forefront of satellite technology both nationally and internationally. Satellite imagery products and services are used extensively by agricultural industries, rural planners, developers, exploration industries, environmental groups and government to assist in natural resource and land management.

TOUR TWO - HALF DAY

Ecologically Sustainable Development – The Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre

TOUR THREE - FULL DAY

Geothermal Energy, Seawater and Waves

THIS TOUR IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Date:            Monday 22 August

Run Time:    approx. 8.5hrs

Depart Perth CBD – 8:30 am

Return Perth CBD – 5:00 pm

Cost:            (includes transport and lunch) $65-80 pp (based on 20 attendees)

As the first stop on the day's agenda, the Perth geothermal tour will show visitors the sites and plans for the first two geothermal energy projects in Perth, Western Australia.  The tour would initially show the preliminary test borehole and final site planned for the geothermal energy driven air conditioning project at the University of Western Australia.  The group will then visit the Pawsey Centre geothermal energy site and WA Geothermal Centre of Excellence (WAGCoE) at the CSIRO/ Curtin ARRC Building in Kensington.  The visit to WAGCoE will include a presentation on how spatial data are used for geothermal resource modelling.

The tour will then travel 30 kilometres south to the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant, which was commissioned in 2006, and is run by the Water Corporation. It is the Water Corporation's biggest single water source feeding into the Integrated Water Supply Scheme, providing some 17 per cent of Perth's water needs. The tour will allow visitors to see the seawater pump station, pre-treatment facilities, reverse osmosis building, potabilisation facilities, and the drinking water pump station. It will allow time for questions.

There will be a late lunch the Cockburn Wetlands Education Centre which promotes restoration activities, and environmental education of this local wetlands site.

The final stop will be at the Carnegie Wave Energy facility in Fremantle. Carnegie Wave Energy Limited are an Australian company focused on developing and commercialising the CETO wave technology to extract energy from ocean waves for the production of renewable, emission free electricity or potable water. Carnegie has been developing CETO for the past 10 years from conceptual design, through one third scale system deployment to the deployment of its first commercial scale CETO3 unit in open ocean waters off Garden Island, Western Australia. Carnegie has developed a rapid prototyping capability that allows the company to move from concept to in-ocean prototype testing, via advanced computational modelling and onshore testing, in a matter of months. Key to this is its unique, purpose built private Wave Energy Research Facility which provides integrated onshore and offshore testing capability. This tour will visit the Carnegie Wave Energy Research Facility based in North Fremantle and incorporate discussion on the use of geospatial information and resource management with Carnegie’s site development manager.

The tour will return to the Perth CBD.

TOUR FOUR - HALF DAY

Kings Park and Botanic Garden

TOUR FIVE - Full Day

Applied Spatial Information in a mining and wastewater management context

THIS TOUR IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Date:           Friday 26 August

Run Time:    approx. 9hrs

Depart Perth CBD - 8:45 am

Return Perth CBD - 5:30 pm

Cost:            (includes transport and lunch) $65-85 pp (based on 20 attendees)

The tour will make its way from Perth CBD to the Kwinana Industrial Centre, located 40kms south of Perth for a tour of the nutrient-stripping wetland established by CSBP for the treatment of on-site industrial wastewater prior to discharge to Cockburn Sound and from October 2005, prior to discharge to the SDOOL. This pilot wetland was an important part of the development of on-site wastewater management and was the first of its kind in Australia constructed to treat industrial wastewater.

The recently expanded wetland now allows enhanced bacterial nitrification of ammoniacal nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen in the two new wetland cells. The expanded wetland has resulted in increased nitrogen removal from the wastewater prior to discharge to the environment.

The group will then make a stop at the Beeliar Regional Park, which runs parallel to the coast through Melville, Cockburn and Kwinana. Beeliar Regional Park's 19 lakes and numerous shallower wetlands are home to abundant wildlife and are great places to visit. A highlight of this wetlands stop will be a 'Welcome to Country' and story-telling by a local indigenous elder, followed by an interpretative walk of the lake and its environs. A bush-tucker lunch at this site will round out this stage of the tour.

The group will then make their way to the ALCOA Huntly bauxite mining operation which is located in the jarrah forest just 1.5 hours south-east from Perth. Alcoa's GIS manager will demonstrate best practice use of spatial planning systems where you will see excellent examples of daily use through to life of mine planning. We will then see first-hand Alcoa’s world class mining and rehabilitation operations.

TOUR SIX - FULL DAY

Rottnest Island Eco Tour