Well firstly lets not be confused about what governments really think about their communities.
Secondly Skippers pulled out of Geraldton because it could not compete on a level playing field, it was not allowed to operated into Gelarldton within 30 mins of a Skywest scheduled service, that makes it near impossible to capture a market particularly during the prime times.
Thirdly no-ones interested in Kalbarri, Carnarvon and the like, XR can have them, even in a deregulated market I doubt anyone would be putting their hand up for those routes, particularly against XR. The only turboprop routes XR have that are of any importance is Geraldton, Albany and Esperence, these are the only routes that QF or anyone else would be interested in.
Who will crew them, well XR's existing F50 pilots of course and I've been around long enough in this industry to know they will be falling over themselves when the time comes, don't be last man out, QF won't be needing them all.
All of the above is why there will be no offer for tender on any of western Australias routes when the current arrangement expires. That was all made perfectly clear back in 2005 when it was assigned for the last time.
The usual government policy, leave it up to the industry and let them sort it out.
Think about the impact upon XR in the event that one single event occurs. don't be making the mistake of thinking oh my goodness, how will we live without XR, the same way we did without AN.