Colo Heights Rural Fire Brigade 10th February,2014

The Manager Mobile Coverage Programme Department of Communications GPO Box 2154 CANBERRA ACT 2615 Dear Sir/Madam, Mobile Network Expansion Project- Addition of Colo Heights NSW on list of locations requiring improved mobile network coverage I wish to make a submission on behalf of the Colo Heights Rural Fire Brigade for inclusion of the Colo Heights area on the “list of locations, established by the Commonwealth, of areas that are reported to have poor, or no, mobile coverage.”p4 Mobile Coverage Programme Discussion Paper

Description of area.

Colo Heights is a semi-rural village located approximately 100km north west of Sydney. It consists of approximately 150 properties, situated predominately along the Putty Road, linking Windsor and Singleton, and a few minor roads off it, and completely surrounded by National Parks and other bushland.

The population consists of people who commute to the Sydney area for work, as well as a number of local businesses, primary producers, and weekenders.

The area consists of typical Blue Mountains terrain, with sandstone ridges dissected by creeks and rivers and is predominately covered in dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest. Approximately 80% of the area is covered by National Park.

The nearest service town is Windsor which is 35km away by road. The only local services in the local area is the service station/general store, a Public School, and the Community Hall and Colo Heights Rural Fire Brigade.

The area is therefore a small community, and satisfies the criteria for funding. ( p3 Mobile Coverage Programme Discussion Paper )

Major Transport Route

The Putty Road, or Singleton Rd as it is sometimes called, is one of the only main roads northwards from Sydney, and forms part of the Route 69 main road network.

Historically, the Putty Road was upgraded by the military during World War 2 as it was recognised as a major transport link north of Sydney and was strategically important as

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it was beyond the range of bombs from Japanese warships. Following WW2, it remained the major truck route north of Sydney until the Gosford freeway was constructed, and still remains a major trucking route for vehicles travelling to the New England Highway. Actual traffic volumes would be available from the Roads and Maritime Services if required.

During times of closure, or major traffic congestion on the M1, it becomes an important alternative route north for all traffic. It is also a major transport route to the Hunter Valley tourist area.

A large sand quarry to the north of Colo Heights is the current major source of sand for concrete batching throughout Sydney, and over the last few years has grown to be a very busy truck route for truck and trailer combinations carrying this important product to Sydney markets. Without this quarry product, all building construction projects in Sydney would be affected. This happened during recent bushfires in the area in October/November 2013, when transport from the quarry stopped for a number of days due to road closures, and many of Sydney’s concrete batching plants almost ran out of raw materials.

The area is therefore on a major transport route and satisfies the criteria for funding.

( p3 Mobile Coverage Programme Discussion Paper )

Natural Disasters

Due to the heavy vegetation throughout the entire area, Colo Heights is highly prone to bushfire. Due to the lack of roads in the area, any bushfires that start in the area are very difficult to access and control. The major cause of bushfire in the area is from lightning strike, and as this often occurs in very remote locations, the fire can often quickly establish before fire crews can access the area. Many bushfires therefore tend to become very large and destructive, and recently major fires have occurred in 1994,1997,2001-2,and 2013. The 2001-2 fires impacted upon the major residential areas of Colo Heights with some properties destroyed. Hundreds of volunteer firefighters and crews from interstate, and the defence forces and other agencies, were involved in the firefighting efforts.

2013 saw extensive areas in the northern part of Colo Heights burnt, with a number of remote rural properties threatened. Again, due to concerted efforts by large numbers of firefighters, property destruction was kept to a minimum.

Numerous smaller fires occur within the area each year.

Climate change and the associated extremes of weather, are likely to exacerbate the problem in the future.

Colo Heights is also affected by flooding. From Sydney, all entry points into the area are prone to closure by flooding of the Colo and Hawkesbury Rivers. Although the incidence of flooding appears to have decreased in recent years, during the 1980’s and 90’s, Colo Heights could be isolated by flooding a number of times each year.

The area is therefore prone to natural disaster, and satisfies the criteria for funding. ( p3 Mobile Coverage Programme Discussion Paper )

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Tourism

Although not a major tourist destination, there are a number of tourist activities in the area. These include a caravan park on the Colo River, a major school recreation facility “Somerset” on the Colo River, public camping area at Upper Colo, an off-road racing track at Mellong, various bed and breakfasts and horse riding properties. The Colo River wilderness area is also a popular bushwalking and canoeing area, and trail bike riding in the area is a popular pastime. All these activities draw people from outside the area who anticipate mobile coverage as being available, and are often inconvenienced by the lack of communication available. The potential for people to become lost, or injured, is also quite high and mobile coverage would provide a valuable safety net.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Communication indicated that Tourism was a factor in determining priority for mobile upgrade. The area does support a number of tourist activities.

Existing mobile coverage.

A copy of the supposed Telstra mobile coverage is attached. This is probably an optimistic map, as the majority of Colo Heights residents have no, or spasmodic coverage. The realistic, dependable mobile coverage, driving northwards on the Putty Rd, ceases at North Wilberforce. There is some spasmodic coverage between there and the service station at Colo Heights, and the next dependable mobile coverage on the Putty Rd is not re-established until Milbrodale, over 100kms to the north. (The Telstra coverage plan indicates service at Putty however, from my own personal experience, there is no coverage on the Putty Rd itself)

Colo Heights therefore has poor, or no, mobile phone coverage and satisfies the criteria for funding.

There is only one public phone (card operated) between Colo Heights and Milbrodale.

It is interesting to note that the old analogue signal mobile phones had coverage over much of Colo Heights.

Benefits of improved mobile phone coverage – A Rural Fire Brigade perspective

As well as the obvious benefits to the community which would be provided by increased mobile phone coverage, the following benefits would directly affect the local volunteer Rural Fire Brigade.

1. Callout procedures. Some members of the brigade, but only a small percentage, are provided with pagers. Other members, or when pagers are not carried at home, rely on a telephone call from the brigade call-out officer to attend emergency situations (including house fires, motor vehicle accidents, and bushfires). Power outages are common, especially during bushfires, and as most residents have a portable type phone in the home, reliant on electricity, power failures often result in the inability to contact the crew. Living on acreage, many people are away from the home phone during the day, and good mobile service would allow crews to be contacted easily.

2. Emergency warnings. The recent innovation of forwarding emergency messages via the mobile phone network has proved highly effective during bushfire emergencies. Colo Heights, due to its high incidence of fire, would benefit greatly from this ability. Both residents, and the travelling public, would benefit. Increased use of Smartphones and the ability to access up to date

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information from the Rural Fire Service webpage would also greatly benefit in the timely dissemination of accurate information during bushfire emergencies.

3. Operational benefits. The main form of communication during a call-out to a bushfire, MVA or other emergency event, is via the Fire trucks main PMR radio. All communication using this method is directed to Hawkesbury Fire Control. This radio frequency can often become used constantly during larger fire events, and the ability to use a mobile phone for more routine communication e.g. checking on availability of relief crews, organising additional food or water or similar lower priority call, would be of great benefit in running the brigade. The Colo Heights volunteer Rural Fire Brigade currently has a satellite phone, and this is often utilised for this type of call, but is very expensive. There have been many instances, particularly at MVAs, where Police have been unable to get a signal with their GRN radios and have used the satellite phone to arrange tow trucks or other uses, and has been used by the victims in some car crashes to notify family members or arrange alternative transport. Improved mobile phone coverage would make these types of communications quickly, easily and cheaply.

4. 000 Emergency calls. Better mobile phone coverage along the Putty Rd would allow motorists to make emergency calls more quickly. This could be a potential life saver for victims of motor vehicle accidents, and would also help in quicker response times for bushfire callouts. Many bushfires resulting from lightning strike are called in by motorists travelling the Putty Rd, but it can take an hour or more from the initial sighting to when they can contact 000. Response times are critical in containing a fire before it spreads, so increased mobile coverage could impact on the incidence and severity of bushfires.

Submission The Colo Heights Rural Fire Brigade is a volunteer organisation primarily aimed at mitigating the effect of bushfire on the community. It does not profess to have any expertise in HOW the Mobile Coverage Programme can be best implemented. It does however have the expertise in emergency response in the Colo Heights area to know that an improved mobile coverage would greatly benefit our small community Should you require any further information regarding this matter, please contact

Yours faithfully, Anthony Shorten Acting Captain, Colo Heights Rural Fire Brigade

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Wollemi National Park

Yengo National Park

Parr State Conservation Area

Blue Mountains National Park

COMLEROY

Colo Heights

St Albans

Putty

Glen Alice

Laguna

Wallerawang

Marrangaroo

Lower Macdonald

Mountain Lagoon

Upper ColoMaroota

Lower Portland - Hawkesbury

Spencer

Bilpin

St. Albans

Colo HeightsWisemans Ferry

Lower Macdonald

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6335

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6345

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6. The Service accepts no responsibility for any injury loss or damage arising from the use of this map or any errors or omissions in the information recorded on the map.

1. This map has been prepared by the NSW Rural Fire Service ("the Service") using data supplied to it by other agencies and entities. See the "Data Dictionary" for further information about the sources of this data.2. The Service has not verified or checked the data used to prepare this map. The map may contain errors and omissions. The Service has not made any attempt to ground truth the map.3. There will be a margin of error in relation to the location of features recorded on the map. The Service is unable to specify the extent or magnitude of that margin of error.4. Significant changes may have occurred: i. in the time between which the data was originally collected and the map produced; and ii. since the map was produced.5. Users must, wherever possible, ground truth the map before relying on it or the accuracy of the map or the information recorded on the map for any purpose.

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Kilometres

HAWKESBURY FCCColo Heights

...for our communityNSW RURAL FIRE SERVICE

WARNING

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

KEY MAP

Base Data:Map Projection:

NSW Rural Fire Service GIS Services UnitProduction:

90314S

90313N

90311S

90312N

90314N 90311N

89311S

89312N

89311N

LegendRFS StationRFS Brigade BoundaryRFS DistrictFB Station BoundaryNational ParkState Forest

LPI Topographic Map SheetsMGA 1994