March 6, 2015
The problem of an NBN Tower being built at Tingoora may be a step closer to a solution after a public meeting on Thursday night was told NBNCo’s original (and already approved) site may be available again.
Representatives from NBNCo heard that forestry land south of the town and formerly owned by Tasmanian Plantation Pty Ltd, a company in receivership, had been sold last week.
NBNCo had unsuccessfully tried to obtain a 20-year-lease on the site from the receivers, but will now try to contact the new owners to see a deal can be struck.
If it can, then NBNCo will probably build the tower there rather than on the Swartz’s Road site north of the town.
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Last week, news that a development application had been lodged for the Swartz’s Road site prompted concerns from Tingoora residents that the 40 metre structure would lower the visual amenity of the area, reduce property values and the introduce extra radiation into the environment, with possible adverse health effects.
More than 50 objections to Swartz’s Road site have since been lodged with the South Burnett Regional Council.
Thursday night’s meeting at Tingoora State School’s chapel was attended by Jacqui Crumpton and Andrew McLane from NBNCo, Cr Ros Heit, SBRC Manager Planning and Land Management Chris Du Plessis and 20 Tingoora residents.
Ms Crumpton and Mr McLane had come to answer residents’ concerns about the tower, which is part of a wireless broadband network NBNCo is building across the region, and allay fears the tower would pollute the environment.
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Ms Crumpton said the company’s engineers had investigated 14 sites around Tingoora but had only found two that were suitable – the original site in forestry land to the south of the town which the South Burnett Regional Council had already approved, and the Swartz’s Road site.
She said the company had to rule out eight of the other sites because they wouldn’t provide adequate coverage for Tingoora; and four sites located further away from the town also had to be ruled out because they would require towers as high as 90 metres to provide coverage.
She then explained that NBNCo towers are different to the towers normally erected by communications companies to supply mobile phone coverage.
They had a much lower visual impact on the environment, and they also generated far lower radio wave emissions.
Residents would use the two 40W antennas on each tower which to access broadband signals that are 1700 times below the safety limit recommended by the World Health Organisation, she said.
This compares with mobile phone towers, which typically generate 20,000-100,000W, or radio stations at 10,000W.
“We are surrounded by radio waves and have been ever since ‘wireless’ was invented in the 1880s,” Ms Crumpton said.
“Wherever the tower is built, it will add such a small amount of extra radio waves to the environment compared to what’s already here that it would be extremely difficult to even detect it.”
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The couple then handed out two computer-generated mock-ups of what the Swartz’s Road tower would look like if it were built, as viewed from either the Tingoora Water Tower or from near the Bunya Highway, to show that the visual impact of the tower would be minimal.
They also distributed fact sheets (1.5Mb PDF) which answered common questions about NBNCo’s program, as well as the company’s aims for the Tingoora tower, then took questions from the floor for more than an hour.
After the meeting, several residents told southburnett.com.au they felt the event had been positive and said it had allayed many of their original concerns.
A few residents said they still held some reservations about the safety of the tower, but accepted that modern life meant most Australians lived in an environment that was already saturated with radio waves.
Community spokesperson Megan Fearby, who had been delegated to ask a dozen questions on behalf of other Tingoora residents unable to attend the meeting, thanked Ms Crumpton and told her it had relieved many of the worries she had held about the proposal.
She said Tingoora residents would still prefer NBNCo to build the tower on its original site, but after hearing NBNCo’s presentation she felt much better informed.
- Related article: Town Objects To NBN Tower Site
I was at this meeting and I was wondering if there was any update on whether or not NBNco were successful in contacting the new owners of the plantation and if the tower will be built in the original location?
Hi Dale – Cr Heit told us this afternoon that NBNCo have advised her they were able to contact the forestry landowner’s representative late last week, who requested further information on the proposal via email. NBNCo have provided this and are now awaiting a return contact from the landowner. NBNCo said they were pursuing the earliest possible outcome on the issue because it would be good for both Tingoora residents and NBNCo itself. We will provide an update on the situation once an outcome is known.