The Australian Government (through the Bureau of Meteorology), the Western Australian Government and UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) have jointly funded an IOC presence in Perth, Australia since 1998. The Perth Program Office (PPO) and the co-located Secretariat for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning & Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) are a regional node of the IOC and promote international cooperation, coordinate and facilitate the development and implementation of oceanographic science programs and support capacity building initiatives across the full spectrum of the IOCs programs in the southern hemisphere.

The PPO has a particular focus on supporting ocean observations and services through the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and ocean science as a Join Project Office (JPO) overseeing the Second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2). The IOTWMS Secretariats role is to support the governance and coordination of all Member States of the IOTWMS and the three Regional Tsunami Service Providers (Australia, Indonesia and India) as well as other international stakeholders so that the end-to-end tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean remains operational. A particular focus of the IOTWMS since 2014 has been on community awareness and responsive mechanisms and the IOTWMS Secretariat undertakes a number of capacity development projects to ensure that the responsible tsunami warning centres and the broader contact network around the Indian Ocean work well in responding to tsunamis to minimise loss of life. The IOTWMS is recognised as the most technologically advanced of the global tsunami operational systems and is highly valued by the 28 countries for which it provides early warning of potentially dangerous tsunami.