The trans-Pacific tsunami generated by the magnitude-8.8 Chile earthquake on 27 February exposed a problem with Australia's tsunami early-warning system.

Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Australian government has spent Aus$70 million (US$64 million) on the development and deployment of the Australian Tsunami Warning System (ATWS). This is jointly operated by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and Geoscience Australia.

On 27–28 February, the system worked flawlessly in detecting the earthquake and issuing first watch messages, then warning messages for Australia via numerous channels. The smooth operation of the physical hardware of the ATWS is a credit to all the government scientists who have been working tirelessly since December 2004.Unfortunately, the final element of the ATWS — the community's response — failed.

The Chilean tsunami was forecast to arrive at Sydney at about 8.30 in the morning on 28 February. Despite widespread television and radio broadcasts of the tsunami warning, live television coverage showed hundreds of people standing on beaches waiting for the tsunami to arrive. Worse, some of them were deliberately swimming into the incoming tsunami, despite the efforts made by volunteers from Surf Life Saving Australia to prevent this.

These people may not have received the warning messages, or they may not have understood the risk, or they may have deliberately ignored the advice issued.

What became clear is that we need a better understanding of the social dimension of public response to warning messages in Australia, and the emergency services need more resources for community education.