Fears poor phone coverage could cost south coast firefighters, police and paramedics their lives

A former emergency officer says poor and damaged mobile phone infrastructure could cost firefighters and paramedics their lives if this summer sees a repeat of the Black Summer bushfires.

Experts say they don’t want a repeat of the Black Summer bushfires when a vital communications tower was destroyed, threatening the lives of firefighters and evacuating residents.

Over two months, fire destroyed 501 homes, damaged 274 and burnt 79 per cent of the Eurobodalla, including the critical tower atop Mount Wandera near Moruya, which allows the police, paramedics and firefighters to communicate, as well as transmitting radio, television and mobile phones.

Eurobodalla’s emergency management officer at the time, Warren Sharpe, said this week, when the tower went out it “significantly” added to the “community’s fear” and put first responders “at higher risk”.

Communications were cut when the Black Summer bushfires took out a vital tower.

The tower was also damaged by an illegal fire on Boxing Day, 2019, when 72-year-old Christopher Paul McMahon lit a hazard reduction burn on a day of extreme fire danger, and returned to his house to watch cricket on television after he thought he had put it out.

McMahon was sentenced to 12 months behind bars after being convicted of permitting a fire to escape land, causing damage, and lighting a fire for land clearance or fire break without a permit.

His blaze joined the Clyde Mountain fire, and police told the court the fires together were responsible for the loss of more than 400 homes in the Eurobodalla Shire.

“I was distressed to lose local radio. Without it people felt lost and uninformed,” local resident Dallis Tanner said.

Experts say the tower at Mount Wandera must be better protected for future fires.

Mr Tanner was one of many residents who made a submission to the bushfire royal commission.

He said the chaos caused by the loss of the tower impacted the working of the evacuation centre as fires raged through the bush.

“I did not attend the evacuation centre but went to a local hotel on one bad day when the fire came right to Moruya‘s western edge,” he said.

Mr Sharpe said the loss of telecommunications was one of the top issues raised by the community both before and after the fires, due to the risk it poses to lives.

“Mount Wandera is home to the most critical telecommunications in the whole Eurobodalla region, yet the resilience of the power supply and the care of the site is poor,” Mr Sharpe said.

He said while the tower has since been repaired, it remains vulnerable, with timber power poles leading to the site which is surrounded by “prolific regrowth as well as dead, dying and fallen trees”.

The loss of emergency radio broadcasts caused chaos for many residents.

“The damage this infrastructure sustained in the fires and the resulting loss of communications caused major stress in the community and significantly impacted response efforts,” he said.

“It also required us to send volunteer escorts, visiting technical specialists repair crews and our own staff, into the fire zones during the response.

“We must take the lessons learnt and act now to achieve a far more resilient future.

“While back-up battery power supply is being increased, when you look at how easy it is to make the main power supply more resilient, governments should move now to make this and cleaning up the site an urgent priority.

“Knowing action is being taken to build a more resilient telecommunications infrastructure network is fundamentally important for the wellbeing and recovery of our still traumatised community.”

Eurobodalla Council said urgent funding is needed to replace the timber power poles with a more resilient composite poles, “such as those that survived the intense bushfire in the Merricumbene Valley”.

“Council has advocated on the issue to the local emergency management and bushfire committees receiving unanimous support to refer the matter to the state committees for urgent action,” a spokeswoman said.

They are also seeking funding to undertake “immediate maintenance” around the tower and to “establish and maintain in perpetuity a larger asset protection zone”.