Senator Payne opened a $1.8 million extension to CEA Technologies' complex in Fyshwick and officially recognised the successful delivery of 100 radar panels as part of the Anzac-class frigate upgrade.

Every one of those panels, which outperform anything else currently available in the world, has been conceived, designed and manufactured in the ACT.

They lie at the heart of a revolutionary CEAFAR phased array radar system that has been developed by CEA in a neighbourhood that is better known for its exotic recreational alternatives.

Senator Payne made the point CEA's close proximity to Defence headquarters resulted in a high level of communication between the company's leaders and thinkers and their clients throughout the course of its 33-year long "overnight" success.

That relationship has, no doubt, benefited many times from the fact key players on both sides have been able to meet face-to-face to discuss challenges and resolutions and bounce ideas off each other.

It is this proximity to departmental movers and shakers that give Canberra-based industries such as CEA an edge over their counterparts and makes this city the perfect location for a technology park, informal or otherwise, that would work closely with government departments.

A notable outcome of the synergy between CEA and Defence is that a technology initially developed for maritime deployment aboard warships is now being actively considered for use in the land warfare domain.

Physical proof of that potential, made possible by seed funding from the federal government in 2012, was rolled out last week in the form of a portable phased array radar system that could be used to create a zone of safety above an airfield or an operating base at short notice.

The sum total of these capabilities has been the emergence of a high technology business that turns over more than $120 million a year and is expected to employ 400 people by 2018.

If, as it now seems likely, CEA's technology is picked up by some of our major partners in peace, including the United States, then the sky could well be the limit.

None of this would have existed if it had not been for the talent and foresight of one or two gifted individuals with a knack for turning apparently abstract scientific concepts into effective hardware that can do a great deal to defend the realm.

It is these individuals, and others like them, who are the ACT's greatest asset as it tries to diversify its economic base to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

While Canberra has no trouble attracting smart people to come to study or even to work here for a short time, our track record on keeping them to build the CEAs and the DAMSmarts of the future is not so good.

While innovation can, and often does, drag itself up by its own bootstraps, the long journey to an "overnight success" can be shortened considerably with active encouragement and infrastructure.