Submarine telecommunications cables

• Protection zones around submarine cables of national significance
• Background  
• Submarine cable legislation 
• Declaring, varing or revoking a protrction zone

Protection zones around submarine cables of national significance

• Perth protection zone

In late September 2007, ACMA made a declaration for a submarine cable protection zone off the coast of Perth, which has been in effect since 1 February 2008. This protection zone is around a cable that is regarded as nationally significant—the SEA-ME-WE3 cable, which links Australia to South East Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe. The Perth Protection Zone extends from City Beach to 51 nautical miles offshore and covers the area up to one nautical mile either side of the SEA-ME-WE3 cable.

For further details about the Perth Protection Zone, including information about activities that are prohibited or restricted in the zone, go to the WA protection zone page.

• Sydney protection zones

In early July 2007, ACMA declared two submarine cable protection zones off the Sydney coast which have been in effect since 1 October 2007. The protection zones set out in the declarations have been developed around two cables that are regarded as nationally significant:

• the Southern Cross Cable—which links Australia’s communications network with New Zealand, Fiji and the United States, and
• the Australia Japan Cable—which links Australia with Guam, Japan and Asia

The two Sydney protection zones are as follows:

• the Northern Sydney Protection Zone extending from Narrabeen beach to 40 nautical miles off shore covering northern branches of the Australia Japan Cable and Southern Cross cable, including the area between these two cables; and
• the Southern Sydney Protection Zone extending from Tamarama and Clovelly beaches and extending 30 nautical miles off shore covering the southern branches of the Australia Japan Cable and Southern Cross cables, including the area between these two cables.

For further details about the NSW protection zone, including information about activities that are prohibited or restricted in the zones, go to the NSW protection zone page.  

Background 

Submarine telecommunications cables are the underwater infrastructure linking Australia with other countries.

Australia’s submarine communications cables carry the bulk of our international voice and data traffic and are a vital component of our national infrastructure. We are becoming increasingly reliant upon these submarine cables—in fact, Australia’s use of international bandwidth has tripled since 2004. These cables are now worth more than $5 billion a year to the national economy.

Submarine cables are vulnerable to damage and breakage, which can cause serious consequences for the flow of information to and from Australia. In recent years, trawling and anchoring has severed key submarine cables off Sydney. Such cable damage can cause data loss, significant delays, and severe financial loss to businesses, cable owners and individuals who rely on communication links with other countries.

Submarine cable legislation

Because of the increasing importance of submarine cables, the Australian Government introduced legislation designed to protect our most critical submarine cables—the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Protection of Submarine Cables and Other Measures) Act 2005 (122 kb PDF).  When reading the legislation, it is advisable to consult the associated Explanatory Memorandum (628 kb PDF).

The Australian Government developed the legislation following a lengthy consultation process involving key stakeholders and relevant industry experts.

The legislation allows ACMA to declare submarine cable protection zones in Australian waters over submarine cables of national significance. Within these protection zones, activities that could damage submarine cables will be prohibited or restricted. Within protection zones, it is an offence to damage a submarine cable, to engage in prohibited activities, or to contravene a restriction.  Penalties include fines of up to $66,000 and/or ten years imprisonment for an individual, or up to $330,000 for a corporation.

Before declaring a protection zone, ACMA is required to publish a proposal, review all public submissions, consider the advice of an advisory committee composed of stakeholder representatives, and consult with the Environment Secretary (Department of Environment and Water Resources). ACMA must also consider a range of matters before declaring a protection zone.

If ACMA declares a protection zone, the location of that zone will be noted on relevant hydrographic charts and details of the prohibited or restricted activities will be circulated widely to affected parties.

• within submarine cable protection zones, or
• outside of submarine cable protection zones (other than in coastal waters)

Declaring, varying or revoking a protection zone

ACMA has developed a Guide to declaring, varying or revoking a protection zone (PDF 65 kb or Word 174 kb) under Schedule 3A of the Act. It will assist those that wish to prepare a submission to ACMA requesting it consider declaring, varying or revoking a protection zone. ACMA may also be contacted for further information about this process.

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