Proposed temporary restricted area 'WOOLGANGI' in the Flinders Ranges

TRA ‘WOOLGANGI’ is proposed to facilitate continued test and evaluation aviation activities in support of the Australian Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (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.

This proposal mirrors the two earlier proposals for TRA ‘KOOMOOLOO’ in 2025, noting that TRA ‘WOOLGANGI’ has the same lateral limits as TRA ‘KOOMOOLOO’ but has an increased upper limit of 6000FT above mean sea level (AMSL). This proposal contains the proposed activation dates of TRA ‘WOOLGANGI’ for the first half of 2026, with the intent of providing the aviation community significant notice of the planned activities. 

The conditional status of TRA ‘WOOLGANGI’ 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 ‘KOOMOOLOO’ would be activated approximately two weeks out of every six weeks. After a review of required activation times, the following table contains the proposed periods for activation of TRA ‘WOOLGANGI’ in the first half of 2026:

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Dates and times notified above are notional and subject to change dependent upon both internal and external factors.  The associated AIP SUP and NOTAM will specify the exact dates and timings once confirmed.

The proposed NOTAM will display as follows:

YMMM/TRA ‘WOOLGANGI’
Conditional status: RA2
Military flying
Lateral limits: 331740S 1392532E – 331809S 1394202E – 334136S 1394159E - 333813S 1391240E – 331740S 1392532E
Vertical limits: SFC – 6000
Hours of activity: NOTAM
Controlling authority: Australian Strategic Capabilities Accelerator

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