Wild winds knock out Victoria's marine rescue radio network
A call for help over marine radio may go unanswered this weekend, so have a back-up planVictorians heading out on the water this weekend after months of lockdown have been warned that high winds have knocked out a number of the state’s emergency marine radio network locations.
UPDATE: Victoria’s VHF network has been restored.
Boaters are expected to flock to the water this weekend as they take advantage of calm conditions expected to arrive in the next few days, as well as a long weekend provided by the annual Melbourne Cup holiday.
However, strong winds and heavy rain sweeping the state on Friday have knocked out a number of Marine Radio Victoria transmission sites.
Sites out of commission include:
- Mount Kincaid Tower – outage reported, currently stable
- Crowes Lookout Tower – unplanned outages
- Mt Cowley Tower – unplanned outages
- Arthurs Seat Tower – loss of communications
- Bass Hill Tower – loss of communications
- Mount Oberon Tower – loss of communications
- Mount Tassie Tower – intermittent loss of communications
- Nowa Nowa Tower – unplanned outage
Boaters are advised to carry multiple ways of calling for help if they get into trouble, such as mobile phones and distress beacons, just in case they are unable to raise help via the VHF radio.
The outages are likely to mean limited VHF radio services, including emergency channels and digital selective calling (DSC), along the entire Victorian coast from the west of Portland through to the east of Lakes Entrance.
Marine VHF radios on trailer boats only have a range of about five to seven nautical miles depending on how high it is above sea level, meaning for a distress message to be heard, another boat has to be almost in sight to receive it.
Boats such as sailboats with mast-mounted antennas can reach about 20 nautical miles.
Melbourne Airport has today recorded a peak gust of 64 knots as strong north-westerly winds carried in via an east coast low sweep the state.
Fawkner Beacon in the middle of Port Phillip Bay recorded a peak gust of 62 knots, while winds peaked at 73 knots on South Channel Island.
Strong swells pushed up by the winds may have also damaged some boat ramps around Port Phillip Bay.
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