[1] In July 1984, an international meeting agreed on a 14 MHz, 1,380-channel coaxial analogue undersea cable to be constructed between Jakarta, Singapore and Perth, spanning 4,473 kilometres (2,415 nmi) and connecting with cable systems in Malaysia, the Philippines, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
The PITC included the first Pacific and Indian Ocean region Inmarsat earth station in the southern hemisphere,[3] and the OTC claimed at the time that PITC was the world's only communications complex to have cable, satellite and high frequency radio links operating from the same location.
This attracted some controversy when it emerged in February 2002 that a temporary ground station had assisted the Japanese Defense Agency to position four information-gathering satellites to monitor North Korea's developing ballistic missile system.
[5] Recent debate in the community and in State and Federal parliaments has focussed on residential development near the previously isolated site.
The PITC had maintained for many years that there should be a 1 km buffer surrounding its land in which no residential development should occur, and from the mid-1990s onwards, several members of parliament for the area tried to resolve this issue on behalf of neighbouring landowners.