Australia tested its new national emergency warning system on Monday afternoon, sending a siren and an on-screen message to mobile phones in every state and territory. The National Emergency Management Agency said 94 per cent of the mobile towers it targeted broadcast the alert, above the 90 per cent benchmark it had set.
The test ran at 2pm local time in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT, at 1.30pm in South Australia and the Northern Territory, and at noon in Western Australia. Compatible handsets vibrated and played a siren for about ten seconds, including phones set to silent or do not disturb.
AusAlert uses cell broadcast, which sends one message from a mobile tower to every compatible device in range rather than addressing each phone individually. NEMA says that avoids the network congestion that has slowed the existing Emergency Alert system, and that it can target an area as small as a one-kilometre radius or a single local government area.
Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain said the result showed the system did not depend on any single carrier. "This system is much more accurate than the current system. It doesn't rely on any one telco provider," she said.
The 2023 budget allocated $10.1 million for a task force to progress the project, and NEMA signed the build contract in February 2025. Federal budget papers and evidence given to Senate Estimates put the cost of building and testing AusAlert at about $132 million.
Phones that were switched off, outside coverage or running older software did not receive Monday's alert.
The two systems will run side by side for some time. NEMA interim coordinator Patrick Hetherington said state and territory emergency management agencies would have access to AusAlert and the existing text-based system until at least July 2027.
When AusAlert goes live it will carry two levels. A Critical alert, used where there is a threat to life, sounds regardless of a phone's silent setting and cannot be turned off. A Priority alert covers a possible threat. Messages can run to 1,395 characters, against the 160 characters of a standard SMS.
AusAlert replaces Emergency Alert, the location-based system that sends text messages and dials landlines and which state and territory agencies have used for more than a decade. NEMA says AusAlert is technically ready and will be available for use from October.
