Marine radio safety boost

Marine radio black spots along Albany’s dangerous coast will soon improve with a new radio booster at Eclipse Island

Department of Fire and Emergency Services’ new VHF radio repeater will improve connectivity for volunteer rescue teams to navigate around the notorious Salmon Holes coast, where six people have drowned in the past 10 years.

DFES district marine manager Daniel Pell said the new repeater would be installed within five weeks.

“Because the cliffs around Torndirrup national park blocked all radio signal to our current main VHS radio in Albany, our boat can’t get radio reception under there,” he said. “Once our boat has passed Bald Head and around the corner in under those cliffs, they will immediately lose radio contact with the base,” he said.

Mr Pell said the new repeater would provide his emergency rescue teams with a constant link to the base.

This would improve their emergency response time.

The VHF radio repeater is also a part of the WA Coroner’s recommendations following coronial inquiries into three rock fishing deaths at Salmon Holes in 2015 and 2016.

Other recommendations, such as a mobile phone tower on Eclipse Island for better mobile reception at Salmon Holes, were also included in the WA Coroner’s report.

However, Telstra deemed that the idea was not economically viable.