OBERON Council has thrown its support behind the UHF CB tower at Mount Ryan, north of Burraga, after receiving a request for help.
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A recommendation was carried at council's recent ordinary meeting that council give in-principle support to maintaining the UHF CB service at Mount Ryan, write to the Minister for Forestry outlining its ongoing need and seek to have all fees associated with its ongoing use waived.
It follows council receiving correspondence from the Rural Fire Service, NSW SES and landowners within Burraga, Rockley and Trunkey Creek seeking support from council to maintain the tower, which is within the Oberon local government area.
The facility was built to provide radio communication for RFS and SES groups, both state and local, but state groups no longer use the tower and instead use another within the same locality.
Local RFS and SES groups, however, still use the UHF CB distributor.
Under the former Evans Shire amalgamation with Bathurst Regional Council, an agreement was entered into with the Forestry Corporation and Bathurst Regional Council to operate the tower. This agreement has now expired and correspondence from Bathurst Regional Council indicates it is now committed to the new command centre that has been constructed in Bathurst and is no longer financially supporting the Mount Ryan site.
Further, Bathurst Regional Council has indicated that as the local SES and RFS groups rely on the site and it falls within the Oberon local government area, the agreement defaults to Oberon Council.
The SES has indicated that the organisation currently uses the Government Radio Network (GRN) as its primary source of communications, which uses a new tower.
The SES has confirmed that in some parts of the Burraga and Oberon areas there is limited or no coverage from the GRN network.
Both the Burraga and Oberon units of SES use UHF CB in areas where there is little or no GRN or mobile phone coverage when responding to rescues and supporting the NSW RFS during bushfires.
In information received from Forestry Corporation (the landowner), it is claimed that if Oberon does not want to support the network, the tower will be removed and the service lost.
Oberon Council will liaise with both the Forestry Corporation and the Minister for Forestry to retain the existing UHF CB service free of rent.
