Green light for foreign investors in South Australia

The Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) is a 127,000 square kilometre area of Crown land located in South Australia operated by the Department of Defence. It is a world class defence testing range due to its large size, remote location, low population and quiet electromagnetic environment. It also contains valuable minerals with about 62% of Australia’s copper, 78% of Australia’s uranium and large amounts of gold, silver and iron ore.

Woomera was first declared a prohibited area in 1947. As a prohibited area, any person wishing to access the WPA must first gain permission from the Department of Defence, and must usually sign a deed of access. In the past, access to the WPA has been managed on an ad hoc basis by the Woomera Test Facility under the auspices of Defence Instruction 38-1.

The recommendations of the Hawke Report, a government-commissioned but independent review of environmental sustainability in Australia, include overhauling the provisions of the Defence Instruction and increasing transparency and certainty for those seeking access to Woomera.

Michael Sheng is a partner in the Shanghai office and Tanya Denning is a partner in the Adelaide office of Blake Dawson