It is a single point of contact for all defence stakeholders, streamlining their interaction across the South Australian Government.
[1] In recognition of the strong contribution that defence makes to the state's economic prosperity, South Australia's Premier Steven Marshall is responsible for the Defence and Space Industries portfolio.
The stand-alone organisation, supported by the Defence SA Advisory Board Archived 2018-08-25 at the Wayback Machine, was formed on 1 September 2007 to build upon the work of the Defence Industry Advisory Board and the Port Adelaide Maritime Corporation (PAMC) to attract the $8 billion Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD)[2] program to South Australia.
Tasked with the role of creating a sustainable defence industry in South Australia, the agency's first task was to support the State Government's 2004 decision to underpin its bid for the AWD program by building a ship lift and Common User Facility (CUF) at Techport Australia.
Following the Federal Government's decision in May 2005 to build the AWDs in SA, construction of the CUF started in 2007, before being completed and ready for first commercial use in 2010.