Australia's world-class tsunami warning system now operates 24 hours a day and is a major component of a multinational Indian Ocean tsunami warning system.

At the time of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Australia relied on the existing Australian Tsunami Alert System, which provided a limited notification and alerting capability to emergency services and relevant authorities.

There were no mitigation and response strategies in place at the community level; Geoscience Australia had 33 seismic stations (developed for domestic earthquake monitoring and alert services); and the Bureau of Meteorology had 26 sea level monitoring stations, but with very limited capability to access the information in real-time. There was no tsunami forecasting capability.

Now, Australia has a comprehensive tsunami warning system for the nation including its offshore territories, and supports the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS).

Within 10 minutes the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) can now detect and notify of an earthquake with the potential to generate a tsunami. Within a further 2-5 minutes, the JATWC can forecast tsunami threat and potential impacts, providing the public, media, emergency managers and other relevant authorities with tsunami warnings.

Geoscience Australia now have access to over 300 seismic stations across the world, enabling comprehensive analysis, and Bureau of Meteorology now operate 44 coastal sea level stations and 6 deep-ocean tsunameter buoys, monitoring sea level in real-time in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The Bureau of Meteorology also have access to more than 100 coastal sea level stations and 46 tsunameter buoys operated by other countries in our region.

In October 2011, Australia, along with India and Indonesia, became one of three countries providing real-time, rapid-response tsunami information to countries bordering the Indian Ocean. This advice supports these countries in issuing timely and confident warnings to their affected coastal communities.

In April 2013, an interim seismic and sea level monitoring system ceased and the Indian Ocean region had an independent tsunami warning capability. The IOTWS is made up of contributions from Member States of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO around the Indian Ocean - mainly Australia, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand. Significant contributions were also made by the United States, Japan and Germany.