Australia renews Karratha Airport security declaration with new airside boundaries

A delegate of the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs has revoked the 2020 instrument that declared Karratha Airport a security controlled airport and has re-declared it under a fresh notice, complete with a newly drawn airside area. The decision is contained in notice NTC-31564, signed on 27 October 2026 and published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 28 October 2026 as document C2026G00705.

The instrument is made under subsection 28(2) of the Aviation Transport Security Act 2004, the statute that governs security at Australian airports, and it replaces a declaration that had been in place since the last year of the previous decade. The notice was signed by Gerome Balangue (Position No: 48000573), a delegate of the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, the portfolio that administers the Act.

Three operative decisions

The notice performs three distinct legal steps, each stated in the instrument itself:

• It revokes notice NTC-19570, which had declared Karratha Airport a security controlled airport, as published in the Gazette (C2020G00771, 23 September 2020).
• It declares that Karratha Airport is a security controlled airport, with its boundaries shown on the map attached to the notice and forming part of it.
• It establishes, in accordance with section 29 of the Act, an airside area for Karratha Airport, being the area indicated as the airside area on that same attached map.

The revocation and the new declaration therefore operate together: no gap exists between the old instrument and the new one, because both effects flow from the single notice published on 28 October.

Commencement and duration

The notice commences upon publication in the Gazette, meaning it took effect on 28 October 2026 rather than on the date of signature. The attached map is not illustrative but operative — it fixes the airport boundary and the airside boundary, which is the line that separates sterile from public space and determines where screening obligations begin.

The instrument also carries a standing clause: it remains in force until otherwise revoked in writing and subsequently published in the Gazette. There is no sunset date in the text.

Part of a wider round of re-declarations

Karratha Airport is not the only airport to have been re-declared in recent months, and the same drafting formula has been applied across the country:

• Perth Airport was re-declared under notice NTC-31085, signed 14 August 2026 and published 14 September 2026, revoking an earlier notice and a separate instrument dated 7 August 2026.
• Canberra Airport was re-declared under notice NTC-31317, signed 20 October 2026, revoking notice NTC-28207 published 1 April 2025.
• Rockhampton Airport was re-declared under notice NTC-31553, signed 23 October 2026, revoking notice NTC-30900 published 22 July 2026.

In each case the delegate acted under subsection 28(2), re-declared the airport, and established an airside area under section 29 on the basis of an attached map.

What it means on the ground

For the airport operator, the notice resets the legal geography of the site: the perimeter that must be controlled and the inner airside zone where access is restricted and screening applies are now defined by the map attached to NTC-31564, not by the 2020 map. Airlines, ground handlers, freight operators and other businesses working on the aerodrome will need to check the revised boundaries against their own access arrangements, because an area that was previously landside may now fall inside the airside area, or vice versa.

The practical consequence is that the obligations attached to a security controlled airport — access control, screening of persons and goods entering the airside area, and the security program obligations that follow from that status — continue without interruption but apply to the new footprint. The change took effect the moment the notice was published, and it will continue to apply until a further instrument is made and gazetted.

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, C2026G00705, 28 October 2026, Government Notices (official reference: C2026G00705).