Who currently lives at .... ooooh I don't know .... umm Weipa, or Katherine, or Derby ? Who - let's get down to brass tacks - WANTS to live at Weipa, Katherine, or Derby?
It's a myth that no-one would relocate if the bases were relocated.
As for local recruitment, to this day I'm still amazed when I remember the number of times friendly locals delivered cakes to the CP or drove through our roadblocks to support an exercise scenario. Activate the dormant bases in the North-West and you'll be turning the young men and women away from a recruiting office in Karratha with a "No Vacancies" sign in the window.
As for relocating 2FTS from Pearce to the North... instructors will go for the right price and, if they don't, there are a few RAF instructors I know who would quite happily take the visa, posting and civilian contract.
Learmonth... diving at Ningaloo, fishing in the Indian Ocean, camping at Millstream-Chichester/Karijini, endless beaches.
Curtin... diving the Rowley Shoals, cruises along the Kimberley, exploring the Bungle Bungles, friendly crocodiles...
Yes it's hot but I live in a place that's just as hot and humid and we're not short of people putting their hand up to come here and live with their families.
Strategically it's no longer an option to have all of the ADF living a city life South of the Brisbane Line. Our resources are North and North-West of the line... and our friends over the equator who desire those resources now have a blue-water navy, substantial lines-of-logistics and the ability to project their land, air and sea forces to Australia.
War's are fought and won by War Bonds. When the money runs out... the war ends and you lose. How much of Australia's income and potential security for bonds would come from resources in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland?... and how much of Australia's ADF is projected forward of those assets? The depth-in-defence is... where?
The Gorgon Project will contribute in excess of 5% of Australia's GDP... from one location. To leave it without an active ADF presence would be... repeating the lessons of history... lessons that we seem to have forgotten.
The units at Williamstown and Pearce can be disbanded, the assets can be relocated North-West and the personnel can be redeployed or replaced leaving a caretaker unit and the runway. Besides, Perth needs a new airport desperately and Pearce would be a perfect addition (with a fast-rail link to Perth).
There is money for it... it's called a Government Stimulus Package... and this is the time in the economic cycle to do it... coincident with the strategic demand.