Mulwala Community Safety

This website provides information to the local Mulwala community on the Thales Australia Mulwala Major Hazard Facility (MHF) and what the community should do in the extremely unlikely event of a major accident at the facility.

While the risks to the community have not changed, in fact they are being constantly reduced, legislation requires facilities such as Mulwala to ensure the local community are provided adequate information to react appropriately in the extremely unlikely event of a major accident.

Thales in Mulwala

The Mulwala facility is a Commonwealth owned, Thales operated facility, primarily manufacturing propellants and explosives for the Australian Defence Force.

MHF Status

The Commonwealth work health and safety regulator, Comcare, provided legislation requires certain facilities to undergo a regime of licensing and ongoing external assessment. Such facilities are known as major hazard facilities (MHF).

MHF are facilities that have the potential to cause major accidents, where the consequences may rival natural disasters in terms of loss of life, injury, damage to property and disruption of activities affecting people at the workplace and the surrounding community and environment.

The main aim of the regulations is to ensure that the risk of major accidents is reduced so far as practicable. Risk management is a core component of Thales Australia’s operations in Mulwala. Thales has a well developed and robust plan committed to ensuring the likelihood of any incidents occurring at the facility are low.

Why is Mulwala an MHF

The Mulwala facility is classified as an MHF due to the large quantities of explosive, propellants and chemicals manufactured at the facility.

These include:

• High explosives
• Propellants
• Anhydrous ammonia
• Various acids.