$200,000 for Cherry Gardens mobile coverage to improve bushfire safety in Federal Budget.
Reprinted with permission from the Adelaide Hills Messenger
A dangerous mobile black spot in the Adelaide Hills will be thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent a bushfire disaster.
New mobile phone towers will be installed in Cherry Gardens to fix mobile and digital black spots. A spend of $200,000 was revealed recently in the Federal Budget.
The funding pledge is aimed at ensuring safety during the hills in the event of a bushfire, such as last year’s Cuddlee Creek fire which ravaged large parts of the hills.
Budget papers described Cherry Gardens as a “high risk” bushfire area. It follows years of calls from local councils and politicians to improve mobile coverage in the Adelaide Hills.
Mobile phone black spots have long dogged the hills, particularly during emergencies such as bushfires. Hills communities have previously been left without mobile coverage for as long as 5 days during fire danger season because of storms.
A royal commission into Australia’s bushfire response last month heard large parts of the hills were left without telecommunications during the Cuddlee Creek fire. The situation was exacerbated by power outages.
David Waters, from the Adelaide Hills Council, told the royal commission that communications were “challenging” during the fire and it put residents and emergency services “at risk”.
He called for better mobile phone coverage in areas “at higher risk of natural disasters”.
The new phone infrastructure will help ensure communications during bushfire.