The "very significant" investment is to be spent over a decade at a shipbuilding and maintenance precinct in Perth, Western Australia, Defence Minister Richard Marles said.

The government is ploughing money into Perth's Henderson Defence Precinct after signing the 2021 AUKUS pact with Britain and the United States to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Australia, which has no infrastructure to service nuclear-powered submarines, aims to acquire at least three US Virginia-class submarines within 15 years and eventually to manufacture its own subs.

"Henderson is a key piece of the AUKUS story and from that point of view it will be welcomed in the US, as it will be welcomed in the United Kingdom, for sure," Marles told Australia's Sky News.

"But this is about what Australia needs to do in order to meet its strategic moment," he said.

The government planned to equip Henderson with high-security dry docks to maintain nuclear-powered submarines, as well as creating facilities to build landing craft and eventually Japanese Mogami-class frigates, Marles said.

Total costs to develop the Henderson Defence Precinct could eventually reach about Aus$25 billion, the minister said.