Vikas Rambal is the Western Australian billionaire most people have never heard of. But a quarter of a century after arriving from India as a 30-year-old searching for new opportunities, he is about to realise his dream – and close a massive hole in the country’s manufacturing base.

A giant $6.4 billion fertiliser plant on the Burrup Peninsula in the state’s far north-west – 55 per cent owned by Rambal’s private company, Perdaman Holding – is one-third of the way through construction.