Blighted by mobile black spots, bushfire-ravished communities will turn to ultra high frequency (UHF) radio to improve communications in coming bushfire seasons.
The agricultural community of Keilira in South Australia's south-east had little to no mobile reception when a 26,000-hectare bushfire hit in December 2019.
The local Kingston District Council is facilitating the UHF radio solution, and CEO Nat Traeger said the aim is to keep residents connected during the bushfire season.
"The intent is that they'll be on the same station and be able to communicate with each other," she said.
A mobile base station to service Keilira had been announced following December's fire, but is unlikely to be operational before the summer of 2021.
"Realistically, that is not going to be delivered [for] probably another 18 months," Ms Traeger said.
Black spots a common thread in bushfire-hit areas
South Australia's Kangaroo Island also suffered emergency-level bushfires over summer which burnt more than 211,000 hectares.
Kangaroo Island Council mayor Michael Pengilly said communicating during the fire was an issue because of numerous mobile black spots.
"Residents want good mobile coverage," he said.
"They don't ask for a lot in communications, but … people are told to listen to emergency radio, the ABC, and a lot of the time they can't get it. So we need other systems.
"We need phone towers that are working [and] radio systems that will work."
In the wake of the devastation he is calling for more telecommunications infrastructure to be built.
"Given that the west end [of the island] is completely burnt out and will take a long time to recover, it's an opportunity to try and get more towers going," he said.
Government's role in increasing coverage
The Australian Government had rolled out increased telecommunications coverage since 2015 through its Mobile Black Spot Program, which subsidises the cost of constructing mobile base station towers in regional and remote black spot areas.
Minister for Regional Communications Mark Coulton said the current round 5A of the program had a focus on bushfire-risk areas.
"Using the $30 million left over from round 5, we're looking at innovative models of service delivery, we're looking at funding bushfire-affected areas, and major transport routes," he said.
Previously in the program, telecommunications operators would identify where they were interested in placing a tower.
However, there was a risk that areas with a smaller population might not be chosen given there could be less usage.
He said, on average, a new base station tower could take 12 months to construct, meaning any infrastructure funded under round 5A would not be operational before the next bushfire season.
"To say that we can have this problem rectified by next summer is unrealistic," he said.
"We recognise that we've got a problem and we're working as quickly as we can."
A separate $37 million of federal support for bushfire-affected areas has currently funded portable, temporary base stations to service bushfire-hit communities.
That money had also been put into longer-term strategies such as increasing battery life in towers, electricity connections, and satellite communications.
Editor's note 10/08/2020: This article has been amended since its original publication date of 06/08/2020 to remove a paragraph that incorrectly stated round 5A of the program would allow third parties to apply independently of the operators.
