Anthony Amis, Land Use Researcher from Friends of the Earth Australia, summarises the current state of the PFAS challenge in Australia, examining cases of PFAS occurrence across Australia and measures to combat it.
As a Land Use Researcher, I have been researching water quality issues in Australia for many years. This work started with pesticides but also evolved into other chemicals, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The bulk of the work can be found on websites such as:
These maps have been created because no government agency in Australia monitors biocide or PFAS use across the country. Water agencies in different states are responsible for monitoring drinking water compliance. Testing in some jurisdictions can be haphazard and much of the data is never released to the public.
The PFAS challenge in Australia
In May 2025, the Australian Bureau of Statistics stated that three types of PFAS chemicals (PFOS, PFHxS, and PFOA) were found in the blood of 85% of Australians. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has estimated that drinking water accounts for 2-3% of PFAS exposure in areas with low levels of PFAS contamination, with 90% of exposure believed to come from other sources such as food and household products. It is therefore likely that, in some regions of Australia, drinking water will account for higher PFAS exposure than the NHMRC ‘estimate’.
The Australian PFAS map highlights 315 locations in Australia where drinking water supply systems have been impacted by PFAS chemicals. 37% of these locations are in Sydney and Newcastle regions of New South Wales (NSW).
Approximately 30 towns/communities have recorded PFOS levels exceeding the 2025 guidelines for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), with perhaps 12 of these locations facing chronic PFAS contamination over some years (or even decades). These 12 towns total about 100,000 people. Another cohort of a dozen smaller locales around the country have been impacted from groundwater pollution from military bases and airports.
PFAS exposures from drinking water below 2025 guideline levels total approximately six million people, or a quarter of the Australian population. This number is probably higher due to limited testing of tap water across the country.
PFAS removal from water
Traditional water treatment plants do not remove PFAS chemicals. The most effective treatment plants employ granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange resin to remove PFAS. However, for communities, where new treatment plants are not funded or alternative supplies are not available, authorities have had to employ methods which blend PFAS-tainted water with non-PFAS-tainted water, thereby lowering the overall PFAS amounts. In worst-case scenarios, bottled water has been provided.
Non legally enforceable guidelines are published in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWGs) by the NHMRC. Current PFAS guidelines only exist for four PFAS chemicals. Ecological guidelines are published in the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC), with compliance a state responsibility.
In terms of PFAS in drinking water, most detections have been from past use of aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) used in firefighting and training. Pollution sources include military bases, airports, fire stations, and other locations where AFFF was used in the past (e.g. mines and petrochemical sites).
The majority of PFAS problem areas appear to be communities sourcing drinking water from groundwater bores, but recent testing, particularly in the Sydney area, is now revealing other sources.
Almost all PFAS detections in water supplies have been in untreated water, with only a tiny sample tested in drinking water. Only four studies have been published testing the actual drinking water for PFAS chemicals.1-4
Occurrence of PFAS at military bases and fire training facilities
In April 2003, the Australian National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) released an alert that AFFF foam should not be used for fire training/testing purposes. Phaseouts of AFFF across the country were supposed to occur after 2003.
The Department of Defence knew as early as 1991 that PFAS chemicals were potentially dangerous, but the Department didn’t start testing water supplies at military bases until 2006 at Tindal in the Northern Territory.
The highest levels of PFAS in potable water are associated in areas close to military bases where AFFF was used. The highest level (136,000ng/L) was detected in a bore near the Williamtown military base near Newcastle NSW. Residents at Williamtown weren’t informed about PFAS pollution until December 2015. At Oakey in southern Queensland, similar problems occurred with residents informed about offsite impacts only in 2015. AFFF had been used at Oakey and Williamtown for decades.
Three class actions against the Department of Defence by impacted residents were settled in March 2020 for A$212m. Another class action for another seven communities was settled in March 2023 for A$132.7m. The Department of Defence’s costs for PFAS remediation and legal costs have so far amounted to over A$800m across the country. Buybacks of contaminated residential land have not occurred.
Almost 40 airports and hundreds of fire stations across Australia have also been tested for PFAS chemicals, with many locations showing exceedingly high levels of PFAS. Most of these locations are not located in domestic water supplies.
The earliest PFAS monitoring in a drinking water catchment by an Australian water authority appears to have been conducted by Hunter Water NSW in October 2009, followed by Melbourne Water in January 2011. PFAS chemicals were detected.
Fiskville, located in southern Victoria, was a firefighting training facility found to be contaminated with a host of chemicals including PFAS in 2012. The highest levels detected at Fiskville were 275,000ng/L. Fiskville elevated the AFFF and PFAS issue into the national media. Thousands of trainee firefighters trained at Fiskville, with the Victorian Government setting up a A$52m redress scheme in 2022 for impacted firefighters. Fiskville is also located in the domestic water supply for the city of Geelong, with infrequent detections of PFAS chemicals at a Geelong water treatment plant 25km south of Fiskville.
PFAS guidelines
PFAS guidelines for three PFAS chemicals in drinking water were first set in 2016 by the Australian Department of Health. The guidelines were: PFHxS+PFOS at 500ng/L and PFOA at 5,400ng/L.
PFAS was detected in the drinking water supply at Katherine (population 10,000) in the Northern Territory in August 2017. Private bores tested positive for PFAS in 2016 – the source of pollution being the Tindal military base 13km east of Katherine. Restrictions were placed on Katherine’s drinking water – the first time an Australian town had faced restrictions due to PFAS. A temporary water treatment plant was constructed in 2017 to stop PFAS-contaminated water entering Katherine’s drinking water supply. A full-scale plant was operational by early 2024.
Drinking water guidelines were published by the NHMRC in April 2017, substantially reducing the 2016 guideline levels for PFOS+PFHxS to 70ng/L and PFOA at 560ng/L. However, in 2017 there was still some doubt from some health agencies that PFAS was a problem, with claims that PFAS had not been proved to be a health concern. Australia uses a risk-based approach to chemicals such as PFAS, which means that evidence is required before a substance is banned.
More widespread testing occurred by some water authorities, mainly in Victoria and Queensland in 2017 (including sewerage treatment plants and biosolids). PFAS was detected in numerous water supplies with most detections below the 2017 guideline levels. But were these detections occurring frequently or infrequently in specific water supplies? Had this contamination been occurring for long periods of time? Was the contamination increasing or decreasing?
The development of the PFAS National Environment Management Plan began in 2017 with a consultation draft released in August 2017 and a plan released in 2018 with industry guidelines for landfills published. The 2020 version included environmental guidelines for contaminated soils, biosolids, and wastewater treatment plants.
Cases of PFAS detection above guidelines
PFAS was detected in drinking water at Svensson Heights (population 10,000), a suburb of the Queensland city of Bundaberg in 2017. Contamination of drinking water, supplied by bores, was higher than guideline levels, with the pollution coming from the local airport located 2km south of Svensson Heights. The offending bores were shut down in 2018, but the PFAS is continuing to spread north, impacting other bores.
More concerns occurred in Queensland in 2018 at Macknade/Lucinda (population 600) and Ayr (population 10,000), with bore water in both these communities polluted with PFAS. The source of the pollution at Ayr was from the local fire station, where PFAS chemicals were detected at 9,000 times higher than the ADWG. The fire station was located only 600m away from Ayr’s main drinking water bore field. Levels at Ayr exceeded drinking water guidelines for some years, with a number of bores shut down. The situation will only be resolved by the construction of a new water treatment.
More PFAS pollution above 2017 guideline levels was reported at Esperance Western Australia in 2019 and Norfolk Island in 2020. Some of the highest PFOS levels were also detected at Avalon Airport (Victoria) in 2022. Infrequent testing in recent years in water supplies of capital cities such as Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, and Darwin have revealed no PFAS. Two water treatment plants in Brisbane have detected PFAS chemicals below 2025 guideline levels.
2024 was marked with serious problems in the Blue Mountains region of NSW, where PFAS chemicals were detected in water supplies supplying 50,000 people. Sydney Water had previously tried to assure the public that all Sydney catchments were safe from PFAS chemicals. The pollution in the Blue Mountains was attributed to AFFF being used to suppress vehicle fires on the highway in the headwaters of the water supply catchment in the early 1990s.
The controversy and media attention led to the construction of a new water treatment facility in December 2024 and pressure for the NHMRC to review PFAS guideline levels. In June 2025, the NHRMC set new guidelines for PFOS at 8ng/L, PFHxS at 30ng/L, PFOA at 200ng/L, and PFBS at 1000ng/L.
PFAS testing was then implemented across New South Wales by Water NSW and Sydney Water. High PFAS levels were detected in the water supplies for the communities of Tarcutta, Warialda, and Narrabri, with low levels detected in many others.
PFAS chemicals have been frequently detected in the Sydney drinking water supply network since testing began in 2024. 11 PFAS chemicals have been detected in raw water by Sydney Water.
Prospect Water Filtration Plant (WFP) supplies over five million people in Sydney with drinking water. Five PFAS chemicals (PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA, PFBA and PFHxA) have been detected in Prospect Raw Water since June 2024. Average levels of PFOS (2024-25) are 0.633ng/L (7.9% of the ADWG). Average levels of PFBA, however, are over ten times higher at 7.167ng/L. PFBA dominates PFAS detections in the Sydney region with it appearing at higher levels during rainfall events. PFBA does not have a drinking water guideline in Australia.
October 2025 testing by Sydney Water at North Richmond WFP, which supplies 50,000 residents in Sydney’s western suburbs, saw PFOS at 5.1ng/L or 63% of the ADWG.
Researchers³ investigated PFAS levels in Sydney tap water in February 2024 and found 31 PFAS chemicals, including 21 additional PFAS chemicals compared to previous studies done in Australia. They also detected 3:3 FTCA for the first time in a water supply in the world and 6:2 diPAP for the first time in tap water. PFAS levels were also higher than what had been detected in raw water. The authors wrote: “that removal or addition of some PFAS is occurring from the water source after treatment but prior to our sampling at the tap…. When loose deposits are present in pipes, such as sediment, mineral buildup or rust, PFAS can accumulate on these deposits, and the subsequent release of these PFAS can change the profile of PFAS detected from the same drinking water source.”
Researchers⁴ testing drinking water in Gippsland, Australia have also recently detected 13 ‘new’ PFAS chemicals in drinking water samples for the first time anywhere in the world.
The Australian Government finally banned three PFAS chemicals (PFOS, PFHxS and PFOA) in July 2025, decades after they were first introduced. Their dangerous legacy will continue for decades to come.
References
- Thompson J, Eaglesham G, Mueller J. Concentrations of PFOS, PFOA and other perfluorinated alkyl acids in Australian drinking water. Chemosphere. 2011 May;83(10):1320-5. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.04.017. Epub 2011 Apr 30. PMID: 21531441
- Sara Ghorbani Gorji, María José Gómez Ramos, Pradeep Dewapriya, Bastian Schulze, Rachel Mackie, Thi Minh Hong Nguyen, Christopher P. Higgins, Karl Bowles, Jochen F. Mueller, Kevin V. Thomas, and Sarit L. Kaserzon, New PFASs Identified in AFFF Impacted Groundwater by Passive Sampling and Nontarget Analysis, Environmental Science & Technology 2024 58 (3), 1690-1699, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c06591
- Lisa Hua, William A. Donald, Assessment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in Sydney drinking water, Chemosphere, Volume 385, 2025, 144611, ISSN 0045-6535, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2025.144611
- Premium ultra trace analytical method for part per quadrillion (ppq) PFAS Quantification in drinking water. Wejdan Alghamdi, Jordan M Partington, Ivanhoe KH Leung, Bradley O. Clarke.
