Scientists working near a small town north of Perth played a major role in the detection of Albert Einstein's gravitational waves, identifying and fixing an instability in the massive US detectors.

Ten years ago, physicists at the Australian International Gravitational Research Centre near Gingin predicted the observatories in Louisiana and Washington State would run into problems.

The centre's director, University of Western Australia Professor David Blair, who has been researching gravitational waves since 1972, said they realised the detectors would start 'whistling' if they were not slightly redesigned.

"We set about trying to mimic the American detectors here at Gingin," Professor Blair told the ABC.

"And we had to build a small scale version of the detector to be able to mimic the light conditions and everything else, and we were able to create this whistling sound that happens, and then we were able to stop it.

"So our specific role has been stabilising the American detectors."

The team also developed technology to teach super computers "to hear the special sounds of gravity waves" and very rapidly detect the signals.

For Professor Blair, the search for gravitational waves, which he describes as "ripples in the curvature of space", has been a consuming passion.

"This is the only way so far that humanity has been able to get direct evidence of the first stars in the universe. And that is wonderful," he said.

It is a wonder he has passed on to his son, whose PhD is focusing on the instability in the detectors.

Professor David Blair and his team at the Australian International Gravitational Research Centre near Gingin. ( ABC News: Nic Perpitch )

Carl Blair happened to be at one of the US sites when the signal was detected on September 14 last year.

He said it was a very exciting to be there when one of the holy grails of physics was proven.

"Arriving at work the following morning everything was abuzz. Emails flying around the place with what looked like a gravitational wave signal," he said.

But there was scepticism the system could have been hacked, and scientists ran tests to rule out every other possibility other than gravitational waves as the source of the signal.

"It started quite an entertaining search to try and work out how someone might have injected this signal, because like I say, the signal just looked too good to be true," he said.

The Blairs and other scientists at Gingin will continue working on the instability issue, which they said would be an ongoing problem as more powerful detection instruments were built.

They also hope the discovery of gravitational waves would spark renewed government investment in their science.

In particular, Professor Blair has long pushed for the first Southern Hemisphere detector to be built at Gingin.

He said all the current detectors were in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning it was impossible to tell where in space the gravitational waves were coming from.

"To pinpoint, you need to be able to triangulate and that means you really need a detector in the Southern Hemisphere," he said.

"So, for years we've been planning that we should build a big detector on this site in Gingin, to be that key Southern Hemisphere link in the world array."