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Proposed temporary restricted area (TRA) ‘BARCALDINE’ will facilitate continued test and evaluation aviation activities in support of the Australian Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA).
The issue
- Activation of TRA ‘BARCALDINE’ to support Defence aviation activities throughout 2025.
- No significant impact expected to published air routes or Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP).
- Conditional status of the TRA will be restricted area (RA) 2; transit will not be approved except in case of emergency or priority status.
Purpose
Defence proposes the establishment of a single TRA in the Barcaldine region to support Defence aviation activities throughout 2025.
Joint Airspace Control Cell (JACC) requests feedback on the proposed TRA ‘BARCALDINE’ and procedures in support of Defence activities in the Barcaldine region throughout 2025.
Proposal
TRA ‘BARCALDINE’ is proposed to facilitate continued test and evaluation aviation activities in support of the ASCA. The nature of the assets being employed in these activities lead to an inability to comply with broadcast requirements nor see and avoid principles in class G airspace. These characteristics preclude Defence from ensuring safe operation of the assets with other airspace users and necessitate the use of TRA to safely segregate the activity from non-participants. Sanitised airspace is also required for the planned activities in order to assure successful completion of the mission profiles without interference.
The first activation of TRA ‘BARCALDINE’ is scheduled for the 31 March with the dates below intended to continue following the initial period of activations notified in a previous Aviation State Engagement Forum (AvSEF).
This is the second proposal for TRA ‘BARCALDINE’, containing the remainder of the proposed activation dates for 2025 with the intent of providing the aviation community significant notice of the planned activities.
The condition status of TRA ‘BARCALDINE’ will be RA2 with transit only approved for the following reasons:
- aircraft experiencing an in-flight emergency
- aircraft with priority status engaged in the preservation of life or property (medical evacuation, search and rescue and flood and fire relief)
- aircraft who pre-arrange clearance with the controlling authority prior to departure.
Defence will not be proposing activation over weekends and will be able to continue to offer transit of the TRA for flight crews that pre-arrange clearance prior to departure.
Notice to the aviation community will be provided through an Aeronautical Information Publication Supplement (AIP SUP) and associated Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). These publications together will detail the dimensions, activation dates, timings, transit procedures and controlling authority contact details.
Initially Defence provided advice that TRA ‘BARCALDINE’ would be activated approximately 3 days every two weeks. After a review of required activation times, the following table contains the proposed periods for activation of TRA ‘BARCALDINE’:
|
Date Start (Local) |
Date End (Local) |
Time (Local) |
| 24 June 2025 | 26 June 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 15 July 2025 | 17 July 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 05 August 2025 | 7 August 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 26 August 2025 | 28 August 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 16 September 2025 | 18 September 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 07 October 2025 | 9 October 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 28 October 2025 | 30 October 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 18 November 2025 | 20 November 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
| 9 December 2025 | 11 December 2025 | 0700 - 1900 |
AvSEF members are invited to provide feedback to adf.airspace@defence.gov.au by 11 April 2025.