[LINK] comms fails during Black Saturday

Jan Whitaker jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Fri Mar 27 14:09:33 AEDT 2009



Mobile networks 'failed on Black Saturday'

http://www.theage.com.au/national/mobile-networks-failed-on-black-saturday-20090327-9djj.html 

    * Dewi Cooke
    * March 27, 2009 - 1:22PM

Telephone and mobile networks virtually failed in bushfire-affected 
regions on Black Saturday, a community hearing in the town of Wandong 
heard today.

Almost 200 people attended the two royal commission consultations 
held in the township, about 50 kilometres north of Melbourne.

A breakdown in telecommunictions is emerging as a key issue in 
fire-ravaged communities. The concerns raised at today's hearings - 
which were closed to the media - echoed those already aired at 
previous meetings in Kinglake and Myrtleford.

Clonbinane resident Mark Healy said that it was only thanks to a 
tip-off from a friend working for the Department of Sustainability 
and Environment that that he was able to properly prepare for the 
approaching fire and save his house.

"The landline went out and we get no mobiles," he said. "I'm here to 
get on the communications bandwagon."

Most other properties on Doctors Creek Road, where he lives, were destroyed.

Four people perished in the fires around Wandong and 147 houses were 
lost. The royal commission had initially overlooked it on its list of 
community consultations but added it to the 12 other fire-affected 
communities after protests.

Last week residents of Myrtleford and its surrounds, who were the 
first to be visited by the royal commission, reported a breakdown in 
telecommunications on February 7. The issue of patchy communication 
was also raised at the Kinglake consultations.

However Joe Coleiro, who lost his Wandong farm, tools and 250 sheep 
in the fire, said the blaze moved so swiftly that when the Country 
Fire Authority told him to leave he escaped with just minutes to spare.

"The air itself was on fire," he said. "Nothing could have stopped it."

Forest management was also on the minds of some, with Robert and 
Carmel Douglas saying undergrowth had been left to accumulate in the 
forest around their Heathcote Junction home.

Their house survived the inferno but their 200-acre bush property was 
destroyed.

"The fire might have been caught by a spark or a firebug or a loose 
wire, but the inferno was caused by negligence," Mr Douglas said. 
"Years and years of negligence."



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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