A piece in the Southland Times on the Government’s official support of Australia’s big to host the Square Kilometre Array.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“Venture Southland has pushed Southland’s case to have a SKA station in Awarua, since 2004.
“Venture Southland enterprise project manager Robin McNeil estimated installation of a station, comprising 50 antenna, would cost about $50 million but could go as high as $100 million.
“The telescope, able to see back to the formation of the first stars, is one of the world’s most significant mega-science projects on a par with the Large Hadron (particle) Collider in Europe.
“Australia and New Zealand are in competition with Southern Africa to host the SKA, which would be used by 19 other, mainly European,countries funding the project.
“Venture Southland enterprise and strategic projects group manager Steve Canny said the far north area between Whangarei and Warkworth was Awarua’s stiffest competition for a station.”