Mobile black spots still causing chaos a decade after Black Saturday

Some of the state’s most bushfire-prone regions, including Kinglake and St Andrews, still have widespread mobile phone blackspots. So why do concerns fall on deaf ears a decade after deadly Black Saturday?

Helen Keeney, with Terry Melbourne, captained the St Andrews fire brigade during Black Saturday. Picture: George Salpigtidis

Communities in Nillumbik’s most fire-prone areas are still grappling with poor phone coverage 10 years after the deadly Black Saturday bushfires.

Fifteen mobile phone black spots remain scattered through the region in areas such as Kinglake, Strathewen, St Andrews, Smiths Gully and Christmas Hills.

The federal government had funded one mobile base station in Nillumbik in 2015, and two others in the neighbouring Whittlesea municipality, through its Mobile Black Spot Program.

The initiative was developed after the 2009 Black Saturday Royal Commission handed down 67 recommendations, which included enhancing the delivery of warnings from emergency services through mobile phones.

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Smiths Gully homeowner Richard Morris said he did not receive CFA warning texts until an hour later on Black Saturday.

“I guess you should never rely on technology in these types of emergencies as a solution, but especially not around here,” Mr Morris said.

He said a decade on the situation was not much different, and he could only get phone reception when in his car.

“Phone reception is almost like a basic human right these days, you can’t do a lot without it,” he said.

“The fact I need to go into a car just to get two bars of reception demonstrates the lack of coverage here.

“If you’re with Telstra it’s between no coverage and enough to hold a conversation, Optus is reasonable, but it’s all over the place and often darting in and out.”

Some of the mobile black spots in Nillumbik.

Helen Kenney, who captained the St Andrews fire brigade in the 2009 bushfires, said poor phone coverage worsened the chaos for firefighters during the catastrophic natural disaster.

“We had so many calls coming in and out, but so many we never received and some just went dead mid-conversation,” she said.

“It made our job so much more difficult because we couldn’t get radio communication out — often we wanted to contact our controlling officers, but we couldn’t.”

Ms Kenney said her own children were not able to contact her as a nearby fire came within 200m of their family home.

“My kids kept trying to call me throughout the day and I wasn’t able to get them at all,” she said.

“It was a nightmare and I don’t wish that stress upon anyone.”

Mobile black spots around Kinglake which was ravaged by fire on Black Saturday.

The federal government funded a mobile base station at St Andrews four years ago in Round 1 of the Mobile Black Spot Program’s funding allocation.

Whittlesea received the next two nearest mobile base stations in Eden Park and Goldie through rounds 2 and 4.

But Nillumbik failed to make the federal government’s list of priority locations in Round 3.

Labor federal member for McEwen Rob Mitchell said three mobile base stations in his electorate, and one in Nillumbik, were “nowhere near enough”.

“We should be the highest priority,” e said.

“The criteria which makes a region eligible through the Mobile Black Spots Program is being a rural and regional area, having spots with no coverage from any mobile phone carrier and being subject to natural disaster and McEwen ticks off all three straight away.

“On code red days people cannot rely on communication because of the poor connectivity across the region — these communities have suffered greatly from fires in the last 20 years and this is not good enough.”

A spokesperson for the Federal Government’s department of communications and the arts, who did not want to be named, said no other mobile base stations in Nillumbik were successful in getting funding.

“To date, the electorates of Menzies and Jagajaga have not been successful in receiving funding through the program.”

“As Menzies and Jagajaga are both located on the urban fringe of Melbourne, the majority of areas within these electorates are classified as Major Urban areas and are therefore ineligible under the program.”

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MOBILE BLACKSPOTS IN NILLUMBIK: WHERE ARE THEY?

Arthurs Creek

Bend of Islands

Christmas Hills

Cottles Bridge

Doreen

Kangaroo Ground

Nutfield

Panton Hill

Smiths Gully

St Andrews

Strathewen

Watsons Creek

Mittons Bridge Road

Valley Road