The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an independent Commonwealth statutory authority regulating communications and media services in Australia.

In 2007, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) declared three submarine cable protection zones in Australian waters over submarine cables of national significance, including:

• the Submarine Cable 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 Submarine Cable 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. In 2025, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released a new legislation to formally extend the boundary of the Southern Sydney Submarine Cable Protection Zone.
• the Submarine Cable Perth Protection Zone stretching from City Beach, near Perth, to 51 nautical miles offshore (that is, to a water depth of 2000 metres).

Most of submarine cables connecting Australia land within the submarine cable protection zones in Northern Sydney, Southern Sydney and Perth. There are also cables landing in Sunshine Coast and Darwin.

For the landing of JGA South in Sunshine Coast, the Sunshine Coast Council launched a $35million Sunshine Coast International Broadband Network project, and built a government-owned submarine cable landing station in Sunshine Coast, Queensland. In 2021, Sunshine Coast Council transferred the Cable Landing Station to NEXTDC.

Submarine Cables landing in Sydney:

• Southern Cross Cable Network (2000)
• AJC (2001)
• APNG-2 (2006)
• Gondwana-1 (2008)
• Telstra Endeavour (2008)
• PPC-1 (2009), 
• Tasman Global Access (TGA, 2017) 
• Hawaiki Cable (2018) 
• Indigo Central (2019)
• Coral Sea Cable System (CS², 2020)
• JGA South (2020)
• Southern Cross NEXT (2022)

Submarine Cables landing in Perth:

• SMW3 (1999)
• Australia-Singapore Cable (ASC,2018)
• Indigo West (2019)
• Indigo Central (2019)
• Oman Australia Cable (OAC, 2021)

Submarine Cables landing in Sunshine Coast:

• JGA South (2020)

Submarine Cables landing in Darwin

• Asia Connect Cable (2027)

In July 2024, Australia Government launched a new Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to help ensure undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific are resilient and all countries can benefit from reliable connectivity and the growth of the digital economy.

As of October 2024, there are now 18 in-service international subsea cables connecting Australia with the rest of the world, and various new subsea cables under planning or construction, including but not limited to

• Google's Umoja subsea cable system connecting Australia to South Africa,
• Google's South Pacific Connect initiative to build the Honomoana subsea cable connecting the United States, French Polynesia, Australia, and New Zealand, and the Tabua subsea cable connecting the United States and Australia to Fiji.
• The Humboldt cable system connecting Chile, French Polynesia and Australia.
• The Hawaiki Nui submarine cable connecting New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singpaore and the United States.
• The Te Waipounamu submarine cable system linking Invercargill, New Zealand to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.
• The Asia Connect Cable (ACC-1) subsea cable linking Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines) with Australia (via Darwin), Timor Leste, Guam, and through to Los Angeles, California.

Updated: October 22, 2024