First pictures: See where your Defence billions have been spent

Billions of dollars has been spent upgrading Department of Defence assets across the Territory. See how the funds have dramatically changed the landscape in the NT.

The Department of Defence spent $2.2bn in the 2021-22 financial year, data from Australia’s trade agency Austrade shows.

Projects included upgrades to the four main Defence bases in the Territory, improvements at Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force bases in Darwin and works at Tindal.

National security means most of the work is done behind locked gates and high fences and, aside from the hundreds of locals employed on the projects, most Territorians never get to see the job once it’s completed.

Images taken by aerial surveying company Nearmap, shine a light on some of the Defence works undertaken in the NT over the past few years.

Nearmap said its proprietary aerial camera system is attached to aircraft, not satellites, resulting in an ultra-high resolution image.

Civil Contractors Federation of the NT chief executive Tom Harris.

The works have been a huge bonus for the Territory’s civil construction sector at a time when there is uncertainty over a number of NT government-backed projects such as Sun Cable and Project Sea Dragon.

Civil Contractors Federation NT chief executive Tom Harris said the Defence work has been a substantial part of the sector’s activity in recent years.

“There is concern at the moment in the sector there is a lot of ‘potential’ with emerging projects, but not everything has been tendered or awarded at the moment, while the Defence component of the NT’s infrastructure program is quite extensive,” Mr Harris said.

“There’s a lot of activity with Defence at the moment and at the moment there are a number of civil contractors engaged in Defence projects.

“They’re positive projects and as clients, Defence is a pretty important part of the civil landscape.”

New wharf at HMAS Coonawarra (May 2023)

Defence contributed about $520m for joint upgrades to HMAS Coonawarra as well as the adjacent Larrakia barracks, and now has its own stand-alone wharf facility in the Top End, effectively bypassing Chinese-owned Darwin Port. Coonawarra Naval base used to be landlocked so the upgrades are a tangible addition to the NT’s naval facilities.

Aerial imagery by Nearmap

New US-constructed fuel storage at East Arm

Adjacent to the Vopak tank farm at East Arm, the $270m US military bulk fuel storage facility is a concerted effort by the United States to shore-up fuel supplies to decentralise that country’s fuel storage facilities. The lids were added in April and the project is expected to be finished by September.

Aerial imagery by Nearmap

New fuel storage facility at RAAF Darwin

Nova Nacap, a US-Australian joint venture, built the $80m new storage facility at RAAF Darwin which included two 7950 cubic metre ‘cut and cover’ bulk fuel storage tanks, two pump houses, a fuel filter building and a petroleum operations building and other key infrastructure. Funded by the United States, they complement the States’ Top End force posture initiative. Commenced in 2018, the job’s expected to be done by June.

Aerial imagery by Nearmap

New aprons at RAAF Darwin

Awarded in 2018, the $24m contract to expand parking aprons at RAAF Darwin was designed to accommodate large US Air Force aircraft during exercises such as Pitch Black. The apron is also notable for its four large jet blast deflectors on the airport’s southern edge which, according to Defence industry bible Defence News, were built “with the high-power engine run-ups for KC-10s in mind”.

Aerial imagery by Nearmap

Extension to RAAF Tindal runway (Sept. 2022).

Part of Defence’s $1.1bn infrastructure investment at RAAF Base Tindal, $737m was spent upgrading air force infrastructure with improvements to the airfield, increases in aviation fuel storage, reinvestment in ageing base engineering services and the provision of additional living-in accommodation for posted Air Force personnel.

Aerial imagery by Nearmap