Entertaining travelogue. In the '70's I stayed in in a shack where the Cable Beach resort hotel now stands and lived 5 years in Karratha during the 90's slump when population fell to 7,000.

Did you write all this to come up with the unsubstantiated conclusion
'Australia is a good country but badly governed'? OK you've provided some evidence for the first part but not the 'badly governed' bit.

My observation on the 'buried treasures' - they're only potential riches totally dependent on huge amounts of fossil energy to extract. There are consequences to this, which we have yet to see in full measure.

Australia a great country, badly governed?
Sure and it has been since Lang Hancock went hat in hand to virtually every Australian government, seeking start up funds, that would have allowed Australia to develop and keep the vast wealth generated by the Pilbra.
Badly governed, when the first "mining boom" was used to pork barrel, create middle class welfare and give tax breaks to billionaires?
Talking about separating gold from iron ore, the most logical, value adds by smelting the ore and using gravity to selectively place the heaviest metal at the bottom of the crucible. And then decanting the molten iron the way a home brewer pours beer, leaving the unwanted yeasty material at the bottom of the bottle?
We invented the direct reduction method, which completely circumvents the pig iron stage, thereby producing quality steel with the lowest carbon output, and excluding labour, at the lowest cost!
Labour costs could be more than completely offset by ultra cheap energy, serious automation and long overdue tax reform; that could produce two simultaneous outcomes, the complete removal of all avoidance and the uncompetitive outcomes that confers on the patriotic employer?
And an additional 7% added to the bottom line, with the removal of all compliance costs.
Followed by an additional increase in profitability with the jettisoning of all other tax imposts, which would be completely negated by the reform, that I've outlined and mathematically rationalised in some detail, in earlier posts.
Talking about plane rides, my first was in an old DC3. A thousand mile flight that took over half a day. Flying on a lean as possible mixture at around a thousand feet, just above stalling speed?
It was a ride to remember!
Sort of like being held captive in a runaway lift, constantly speeding up and down.
Your stomach constantly going from your boots to your throat and, visa versa!
The flight attendant arrived midway with lunch! Sandwiches, which I urged her in gurgled terms most un-gentlemanly, "to hurl them straight into unspeakable vomit bag; given, as it save unmentionable time"!
Rhrosty.