Decision on Dangar Island Telstra Tower handed down after eight year planning battle

An eight year planning panel battle to fix mobile and internet reception on an island in Sydney’s north has finally been settled after dividing opinions among the island’s residents.

An eight year planning panel battle to fix mobile and internet reception on Dangar Island has finally been settled after sparking mixed opinions among the island community.

Hornsby Council’s planning panel has given the green light for Telstra to build a new 25m communication tower with seven antennas next to the Dangar Island Bowling Club to provide the island and surrounding areas including sections of Brooklyn with 4G access.

Talks for the $303,000 project began back in 2016 and since then have been subject to staunch community debate, public meetings, petitions and a long-running assessment process.

A reference photo of what the tower could look like.

Telstra said the tower, next to the Dangar Island Bowling Club, would fix reception black spots on the island.

The approval of the project comes after a Q&A session was held at the bowling club last year, attended by local residents, Telstra representatives and Federal Berowra MP Julian Leeser.

Residents opposed to the tower told the meeting they had concerns over the bulk and scale of the tower, potential health impacts, and loss of vegetation to make way for the development.

The island is currently a reception black spot.

Those in favour of the development said it would solve long-running reception headaches and would finally enable residents to work from home.

Danger Island’s RFS captain Rochman Reese gave an impassioned plea in support of the proposal, saying the current black spots have resulted in instances of “extreme communications difficulties” and delayed response times in emergency situations.

“That extra 15 minutes (responding to calls) is the difference between saving your house and saving the house next to you. What if it was your house?” he told the meeting.

A reference image of what the tower could look like.

The meeting also heard Telstra chiefs debunk concerns over potential health impacts of the tower including claims the tower would expose the island to “24 hour radiation”.

“There’s a wide body of information circulating on the internet and unfortunately with Covid there’s been a lot of misinformation about a lot things including 5G,” Telstra representatives told the meeting.

“It’s been proven safe. It’s safe technology.”

The tower will be built at the local bowling club, pictured above.

Federal Berowra MP Julian Leeser welcomed the approval of the tower, saying poor communications on the island have left people “seeding with anger”.

“We’ve had fires, floods, and it’s just not safe not to have mobile phone reception,” he said.

“We’re also living in an environment where you need your phone – to study and to keep in touch with family.”

Reception is currently poor on the island.

Hornsby Council’s planning panel approved the development on 36 conditions, finding it would help eliminate mobile black spots on the island and surrounding areas.

“It will provide a positive impact on the local community and visitors by improving the mobile network coverage in the locality which will in turn have positive social and economic benefits and improve public safety and emergency response times,” the panel said.

One resident of the island, who asked not to be named, said she was happy with the outcome.

She said current mobile reception meant she had to use Wi-Fi calling to keep connected with the outside world.

“I understand why people don’t want it and I’m sympathetic to that – the mobile coverage on the island is poor but I understand why people don’t want it next to their homes,” she said.

“The reception has been frustrating and it’s not brilliant when we’re at home and have to use the mobile through the Wi-Fi. We’re on fibre through the node, and the internet is very unreliable.”

Telstra said other locations were considered for the tower, but deemed the closest alternative sites away from homes as unsuitable due to the island’s topography.