What's the reason for changing the airspace dunnunder?
Two reasons actually!
1/. Useless 'public servents' who would not function in an iron lung needing to look busy and productive.
2/. Egomaniacs, like DS, who want to put their stamp on a system that worked perfectly well before they came along and stuffed it up!
The 'excuse' for all the above is User Pays and cost saving...or more accurately GAR, Government Abdication of Responsibilities.
Probably 80 to 90% of Australia resembles your SW Deserts/prairies and yet under Dick Smith's 'leadership' we have seen the destruction of Flight Service Offices (we just don't have them anymore) and the introduction of a system which charges fees for zero service. Probably 5% of Australia has radar coverage below 10000'. As a guess we have probably 1% of your VHF Navaids.
And then there's frequency sharing where everyone from Meekatharra to the Torres Straights (Like San Francisco to Chicago but mostly desert) is on the same frequency.
We have a tiny fraction of your aircraft numbers but still the system will not be allowed to provide even basic services like uncrowded frequencies and traffic seperation between IFR RPT Dash 8/B737 and VFR Charter C206/210 in areas where 30 movements in a day is a big day!
Chuck.