The US now has access to more than half Australia’s military bases
IPAN's conference in July this year called for Australia to Break Free from the USA
Our people, lands, waters and oceans are being threatened by an empire in decline prepared to wage war against China to maintain primacy. Its clear there would be no winners in such a war......
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Exclusive: US-controlled weapons corporations and forces have control or access to more than 100 facilities across the continent, which some analysts describe as a ‘colonisation’ of Australia’s military. Find a map of them here
US military presence in Australia, mapped – video
Why can the US access so many Australian military bases? – podcast
Ben Doherty, Andy Ball and Nick Evershed
Mon 7 Sep 2026 06.00 AEST
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US military interests control or have access to more than 100 defence facilities on Australian soil, in what some analysts describe as a “saturation” – even a “colonisation” – of the Australian continent.
New data compiled by the Nautilus Institute and published by Guardian Australia maps the extent of US militarisation. The US military controls 17 facilities on mainland Australia and has access to 75 more Australian-run military installations. US defence corporations have access to an additional 18.
In total, the US military and US defence corporations have control of or access to 110 facilities on Australian territory, well over half of all the military installations in Australia.
“We have been thinking about American influence on Australian defence policy as a matter of penetration,” the database’s author, Prof Richard Tanter, tells the Guardian, “and we’re aware of the closeness of the alliance, the integration of the armed forces …
“But what this database shows is it’s not a matter of penetration, it’s a matter of saturation. Over half of the defence facilities that we have looked at have some level of American access: that means American personnel, it means American corporations, some of the biggest armaments companies in the world.”