World's media ready for anything at search centre

Reporters get ready to send the news, should there be any. Picture / Getty Images

Media from around the world were gathered outside the RAAF Pearce Base north of Perth last night.

A day after the search for MH370 moved to the ocean off Perth six portable satellite dishes were set up outside the base and journalists have arrived from as far away as the United States. At least a dozen television cameras were set up outside the main gates of the base and about 20 journalists and photographers milled around.

After bad weather overnight it was a pleasant day in Bullsbrook, where the base is located.

By 1pm, the volume of media at the entrance had grown to the point that there was no longer parking on the roadside and the pedestrian movement was a constant safety threat.

The RAAF moved the media inside the gates to a grassed area near the security office.

Locals showed their support for the search effort, with many tooting car horns as they drove along the busy highway that runs past the base.

For media here there is little to do but wait. Some take notes and others record pieces to camera - but until the items located in the ocean are identified there is nothing to report from Pearce.

There is, however, an atmosphere of excitement - and hope that either way, the mystery of Flight 370 may be solved sooner rather than later.

A woman who lives near the base said media camped out during a storm which cut power to the Bullsbrook area overnight.

She felt for the families of the missing.

"My heart just bleeds for them. I don't think we will ever know what really happened or where it went down," she said.

"I think they're just gone and they'll never find them.

"It's so sad."