Private Investigator Western Australia

A private investigator Western Australia wide deals with a fact no other state imposes so bluntly. Almost everyone lives in one corner, and the rest of the place is enormous. Greater Perth holds the bulk of the population, and the south west, from Mandurah down through Bunbury and Busselton to Albany, holds most of what is left. Everything north and east of that is thinly settled and a long way from anywhere. We offer seven services here: surveillance, cheating partner investigations, background checks, bug sweeping, phone number searches, locating people and spy products. Three of them are done from records and reach Kununurra as fast as they reach Claremont. The other four need somebody standing there, which in the Pilbara or the Kimberley means flights, accommodation and genuine lead time. This page sets that out before you spend anything.

Western Australia at a glance

Western Australia takes up about a third of the continent, roughly two and a half million square kilometres, and nearly everybody lives in the bottom corner of it. Greater Perth stretches more than a hundred kilometres along the coast, from Two Rocks in the north to past Mandurah in the south, and the Kwinana Freeway and Forrest Highway have made Mandurah a commuter town rather than a separate one. Past that, the south west is the only properly populated region: Bunbury about a hundred and seventy five kilometres from Perth, Busselton and the Margaret River country beyond it, and Albany four and a half hours south down the Albany Highway through karri forest. The climate down there is Mediterranean, wet in winter and dry in summer, and the country is green by Australian standards. East and north it changes completely. Kalgoorlie sits roughly six hundred kilometres out the Great Eastern Highway on the edge of the goldfields, Esperance seven hundred to the south east on the coast, and Geraldton four hundred and twenty north. After Geraldton the distances stop being ordinary. Karratha is around fifteen hundred kilometres from Perth, Port Hedland closer to sixteen fifty, Newman about twelve hundred inland on the Great Northern Highway, and Broome roughly two thousand two hundred. The Pilbara runs above forty degrees for months at a time. The Kimberley has a wet season from November to April that closes unsealed roads and cuts access for weeks. Adelaide, the nearest other capital, is some two thousand seven hundred kilometres east.

Perth

Perth and its metro area account for most of the state’s population and most of our Western Australian work. The city has a shape that matters to surveillance: a long thin coastal strip, the Swan and Canning rivers splitting north from south with only a handful of crossings, and freeways that run fast right up until they do not. All of that is covered service by service on the Perth pages rather than repeated here. If your matter sits in the metro area, from Joondalup down to Rockingham and out to the hills, start there. If it is further out, the rest of this page is written for you.

What we do across Western Australia

Private Investigator

Surveillance is straightforward in the metro area and the south west, and a considered exercise anywhere else. Perth to Bunbury is a two hour drive and Albany four and a half, so those are day or overnight jobs. Karratha, Port Hedland and Broome mean flights, a hire car and several days on the ground, which we would rather do once and properly. Small northern towns also make anonymity harder, since in Newman a car nobody recognises is noticed by lunchtime. See Private Investigator Perth.

Cheating Partner Investigations

Cheating partner matters in this state are shaped by rosters more than by late nights. Fly in fly out work sends one partner away for a fortnight at a time, and both the absence and the return create the situations people worry about. The airport is often the most useful place for us to be, because departures and arrivals are fixed and public. Where the subject is in Perth and the client is up north, we work the Perth end, which is usually where the answer sits. See Cheating Partner Investigations Perth.

Background Checks

Background checks need no travel, so a client in Kununurra gets exactly what a client in Subiaco gets, in the same time. More than a hundred databases are searched, dating and social networking activity among them. It matters here because so many people arrive for work from interstate or overseas and their history is somewhere else. People run one before a new relationship gets serious, and before putting money into a business with somebody they met through work. See Background Checks Perth.

Bug Sweeping

Bug sweeping is the hardest service to deliver at distance, because the equipment and the agent both have to be in the room. Three checks are done: a radio frequency sweep for transmitting devices, a hidden camera detection pass, and a physical search of light fittings, power points, ornaments and vehicle interiors. In the metro area and the south west this is an ordinary booking. North of Geraldton it is planned as part of a trip, so tell us every property and vehicle involved. See Bug Sweeping Perth.

Phone Number Search

A phone number search is unaffected by where anyone is. Give us the number and we come back with the name and address behind it, usually within twenty four to forty eight hours, whether the phone is in Port Hedland or Perth. For clients in remote parts of the state this is often the whole job, because it answers the question without anyone flying anywhere. It suits repeated unknown calls and contacts who will not identify themselves. See Phone Number Search Perth.

Locate a Person

Locating a person runs from records and reaches the whole state at one speed. We find current addresses for debtors, for documents that need serving, and for people who have dropped out of contact. Western Australia produces a lot of this work because the workforce moves constantly between Perth, the mining towns and the eastern states, and somebody can change address three times in two years. If a person then needs to attend that address, travel is a separate step. See Locate a Person Perth.

Spy Products

Spy products post to any address in the state, including the Pilbara, the Kimberley and the goldfields, though delivery to remote towns takes longer than to Perth. The catalogue runs to GPS trackers, monitoring software for phones and computers, covert cameras, and listening or recording devices. For people a long way from a city they are often the practical option, since flights and accommodation are the real cost of distance. They must be used lawfully, on devices and vehicles you own or have authority over. See Spy Products Perth.

Outside Perth

Outside the metro area, Western Australia divides into two very different working environments. The south west is easy. Mandurah is barely out of town, Bunbury and Busselton are comfortable half day drives, and Albany, Esperance or Geraldton are longer but perfectly ordinary jobs with a night or two away. Kalgoorlie sits on its own out the Great Eastern Highway, six hundred kilometres of straight road or an hour in the air, and we usually fly it.

North of that is a different proposition. Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman and Broome all need flights, a booked vehicle and somewhere to stay, and in the Pilbara accommodation is priced by mining demand and can be genuinely hard to get during a shutdown. Give us at least a week and preferably two. The Kimberley wet season, roughly November to April, closes roads and cancels flights, and we will say so if your timing is poor.

Because of all this we are direct about what is worth doing. If a background check, a phone number search or a locate will answer your question, that happens straight away at no travel cost, wherever you are. If you genuinely need eyes on the ground in Broome, we will set out the travel honestly and let you decide. What we will not do is take on a remote job we cannot properly staff.

Regional centres we work in include Mandurah, Bunbury, Busselton, Albany, Esperance, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman and Broome.

Frequently asked questions

Do you work outside Perth and the south west of Western Australia?

Yes, though the arrangements differ. The south west, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie and Esperance are drivable or a short flight away and get booked much like metro work. The Pilbara and the Kimberley need flights, accommodation and one to two weeks of lead time. Remote services such as background checks and phone number searches have no geographic limit at all.

How long does it take to get an investigator to Broome or Port Hedland?

Plan on one to two weeks. Flights from Perth run daily and take two to two and a half hours, but they book out, and accommodation in Pilbara towns can be scarce and expensive when a shutdown is on. We would rather use that week arranging a trip that finishes the whole job than fly someone up for a single afternoon.

My partner is FIFO out of Perth. Can you help?

This is one of the more common requests we get. Rosters are useful precisely because they are fixed and known in advance, so we can plan around a specific swing instead of watching indefinitely. Depending on what worries you, the useful place to be is often the Perth end, at the airport or at home, rather than near a site nobody can access.

Is it cheaper to use a local investigator in regional Western Australia?

Sometimes, and if there is a sensible local option we will say so. Outside the larger centres there frequently is not one. What we can do is be clear about the travel component before anything begins, and steer you toward the services that carry no travel at all where those will actually answer your question.

Which services work anywhere in Western Australia?

Background checks, phone number searches and locating a person are all done from records and databases, so a client in Halls Creek gets the same result in the same time as one in Perth. Spy products post anywhere in the state. Surveillance, cheating partner investigations and bug sweeping all need an agent physically present, so those depend on travel.

Other states and territories

Speak to us

Tell us where you are and what you need. Contact Parramatta Private Investigations