NT government recovers from lengthy network outage

The Northern Territory government has restored access to telecommunications and digital systems across key departments and agencies following a large-scale outage.

The outage began at about 3am NT time (4.30am Sydney) and was resolved about 12 hours later, courtesy of undisclosed “workarounds” by the Department of Corporate and Digital Development (DCDD).

“DCDD is continuing to investigate the root cause and identify measures to prevent similar disruptions in the future,” the government said in a brief statement.

“The NT government thanks staff, technical teams and the community for their patience.”

ABC News later reported that the issue related to a gateway in the core network.

The outage impact was officially described as “territory-wide” and affected departments and agencies including Police, Health and Education.

The government said that triple zero access remained operational throughout the outage, and that “all Territory hospitals continued providing patient care.”

However, this was later contradicted by comments reported by ABC News, that three calls were missed, but checks found them to be "routine police follow-ups" rather than emergencies.

NT Police said that non-emergency communications, such as for police assistance and phone lines to local police stations, were impacted.

Other agencies reported issues with access to phone lines, email, and to other network-connected servers.