Standing up a LoRaWAN path that is legal and useful in Australia, then bringing a first sensor into Home Assistant. Radio-band background already lives in t=132. This is a planning and configuration guide, not an ACMA licence-assessment.
Complexity
Moderate. You should be comfortable flashing or configuring a gateway and adding a Home Assistant integration. Radio rules always follow the official ACMA / device-class conditions, not a forum summary.
1. Australia uses AU915-928, and TTN uses one sub-band
Australia's LoRaWAN regional plan is AU915-928. That is a wide plan. The Things Network documents that, in practice, TTN uses the second sub-band only (channels 8–15 and 65). From TTN's public AU915 summary (always confirm the current page, and still follow ACMA / country rules; TTN's page is a community summary, not a regulator instrument):
- Uplinks: 916.8–918.2 MHz, SF7–SF12, BW125, plus 917.5 MHz SF8 BW500.
- Downlinks: 923.3–927.5 MHz.
- RX2: 923.3 MHz, SF12 BW500.
2. Gateway first
- A LoRaWAN gateway (not a Wi-Fi AP) with AU915 support, a short outdoor or well-placed indoor antenna, and a reserved LAN IP.
- Point it at the network server you actually intend to use: The Things Network / The Things Stack, or a self-hosted ChirpStack v4, or another documented server. Do not run two servers fighting for the same gateway without knowing why.
- Keep the gateway's management UI on a trusted network. The radio side is not a reason to port-forward the admin console.
Register the device on the network server with the correct join method (OTAA is the usual starting point), the AU915 plan, and the official device profile or vendor documentation. Confirm a join and a few uplinks in the network-server live data before you involve Home Assistant. If the join fails, the problem is almost never the Home Assistant dashboard.
4. Official Home Assistant path in 2026.11: ChirpStack
Home Assistant 2026.11 documents an official ChirpStack integration for ChirpStack v4, talking gRPC, with an API key, a tenant and device profiles. That is the core path to prefer if you self-host ChirpStack.
If you use The Things Stack / TTN instead, a common pattern is MQTT (or another documented application integration) from the network server into Home Assistant. Use the current official docs for that path; do not assume the ChirpStack integration talks to TTN.
5. What not to do
- Do not copy EU or US channel lists onto an Australian gateway.
- Do not run a high-gain setup or a duty cycle that ignores the device's class licence conditions — read ACMA and the manufacturer.
- A single sensor reading (soil, tank, door) is a good first project; a site-wide radio design is a later one.
An AU915 gateway, antenna and a first sensor should be quoted or purchased in AUD from a supplier who will confirm the regional SKU. No single public price is frozen here.
Official reading
TTN frequency plans (confirm AU915)
Home Assistant ChirpStack (v4)
Existing LoRa band discussion
Researched from official documentation on 15 November 2026 (Australia/Sydney). This is a planning and how-to guide, not a claim that the exact hardware combination was assembled and tested on a live site. Please correct anything that has moved on.