Jet Zero Australia has hit three major milestones for Project Ulysses, its proposed sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel refinery in Townsville, in a single announcement. The company secured a $30 million funding round backed by Qantas and Airbus, welcomed Korean investor POSCO International as a new strategic backer, and received final development approval from the Queensland Government, taking total funding for the project past $80 million.
Qantas and Airbus first backed Jet Zero back in 2023, and this latest round, managed by Barrenjoey, will mainly fund the completion of front-end engineering design and push the project toward a final investment decision. That approval matters just as much as the money. The plant has now received its final Development Permit Decision Notice from Queensland’s Office of the Coordinator-General, clearing its principal development approvals and putting Project Ulysses on genuinely solid regulatory footing rather than still waiting on paperwork.
The scale of what’s planned for Cleveland Bay Industrial Park is considerable. The facility is designed to process at least 183 million litres of ethanol a year into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel, converting Australian agricultural by-products into fuel that can go straight into existing aircraft. Earlier project material described output in different terms, closer to 102 million litres of SAF and 11 million litres of renewable diesel annually, so it’s worth reading any figure alongside what it’s actually measuring. Either way, the project is expected to create around 1,000 jobs during construction and 100 ongoing operational roles, with Jet Zero pointing to modelling suggesting the broader Australian biofuels sector could support more than 18,000 jobs by 2040 across farming, refining, manufacturing and logistics.
CEO Ed Mason called the funding round, POSCO’s arrival and the development approval defining milestones for the project, framing it as the start of a SAF supply chain that could eventually contribute to the energy security of both Australia and South Korea. Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie welcomed the approval as a significant step for regional jobs and fuel security, on top of $14 million in earlier Commonwealth and Queensland grants already committed to the project, described as the largest government funding commitment to an Australian SAF project to date. A final investment decision is now targeted for the 2026 to 2027 window.
It’s a meaningful step for Australian aviation’s sustainability credentials, and Townsville is a genuinely fitting home for it. The city sits at the heart of North Queensland’s resources and regional economy, the same corridor that already carries a steady flow of mining, FIFO and medical charter traffic across the region. A domestic source of sustainable aviation fuel, built in North Queensland rather than imported, is a rare piece of good news for an industry usually asked to justify its emissions rather than solve them.
Adagold Aviation’s mining, FIFO and medical charter flights already move people through North Queensland every week, and a domestic SAF supply chain taking shape in the same region is exactly the kind of development worth watching as the industry’s fuel options continue to evolve.
