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Located at the heart of Australia’s air combat capability, the Williamtown Aerospace Centre has emerged as a cluster of primes and SMEs supporting world-leading defence capabilities.
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Located just two hours north of Sydney, the Williamtown Aerospace Centre (WAC) was designed from the ground up to enhance and facilitate commercial activities in the land adjoining RAAF Base Williamtown and Newcastle Airport.
The WAC will also facilitate the expansion of RAAF Base Williamtown’s capability to meet the changing requirements of the RAAF and its Defence contractors throughout this century.
As a site, WAC includes the Newcastle Airport Precinct and 120 hectares of industrial and business land.
Set on three hectares of land located at the entrance to Newcastle Airport and just two minutes from the entrance to the RAAF Base Williamtown, 1 Technology Place is the exciting first stage of the WAC.
The commercial, campus-style tech park includes commercial offices, and technical and light industrial spaces for lease. Technology Place has delivered Australia’s premier defence technology estate.
James Garvey, director of WAC, explained to Defence Connect, “The buildings have been built from the ground up with defence’s needs in mind.
“From security, to communications capabilities and direct access to the RAAF, WAC is providing global primes like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing Defence Australia, through to emerging Australian industry leaders including Milskil, Bohemia and Redarc setting up at the WAC.”
WAC provides first-class facilities and a variety of infrastructure solutions to meet the needs of individual organisations of any size or requirement.
Garvey told Defence Connect, “We have seen immense growth off the arrival of key platforms like the E-7A Wedgetail and Joint Strike Fighter – this has translated to a massive expansion of the high-quality domestic and international defence tenants.”
All buildings have been designed and built to Defence zone level security requirements and have access to Defence Secure IT Networks (subject to Defence approval) to meet the modern requirements of aerospace, defence, technology and aviation, and related industry companies.
Five buildings have now been completed, and the final partially leased 1,100 square-metre Charlie two-level building is currently under construction, with completion due in March 2020. Leasing details can be seen here.
Garvey added, “The best thing about WAC is its location, at the heart of the Hunter region it provides an amazing work-lifestyle balance, at the epicentre of the RAAF’s next-generation air combat capability with quality education, training and employment opportunities."
RAAF Base Williamtown is the RAAF’s command, operations and training base for the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), with a total of 35 of the 72 jets based at Williamtown from December 2020.
It will also be home to two F-35 JSF squadrons and an F-35 JSF training squadron.
BAE Systems within the WAC has been named as the Australian F-35 JSF maintenance hub and the F-35 JSF Pacific Hemisphere Sustainment facility.
“WAC provides a great opportunity to get in at the ground level for supporting Australia’s air combat capability, with cutting-edge global prime defence and Australian companies – on the back of these successes, the WAC is only going from strength-to-strength,” Garvey added.
Further information about the WAC, including leasing information for the last Technology Place building, is available here.
Stephen Kuper
Steve has an extensive career across government, defence industry and advocacy, having previously worked for cabinet ministers at both Federal and State levels.
