Australia-New Zealand and South Africa have been shortlisted as two possible locations to host the Square Kilometre Array, one of the largest and most ambitious international science projects ever devised.

This discussion paper canvasses regulatory measures to provide enhanced protection for the Mid West Radio Quiet Zone located in remote Western Australia and to further support Australia’s bid for hosting the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). An international consortium is expected to make the final decision in 2012.

This paper outlines additional measures to provide, for the first time, legislative protection to the Mid West Radio Quiet Zone.

The proposed measures include:

a) a radio astronomy band plan that will, among other things, replace Embargo 41 and largely duplicate its provisions;

b) extending the lower boundary of the protected frequency range from 100 MHz to 70 MHz to enable the requirements of the SKA bid to be met;

c) making consequential amendments to the Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan to enable the introduction of the band plan;

d) and further highlight the proposed protection mechanisms by cross-referencing them in relevant spectrum, class and apparatus licence conditions.