To      : All Emergency Management Agencies
      From    : Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network
                Australia
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WICEN.047            REPORT ON COMMUNICATIONS               3/4/94
                       DURING THE NSW FIRES                

       The following article is based on exerts from an article by Bernard Levy
 which  appeared  in  the  Australian  Communications magazine of March 1994.

       The bushfires that ravaged  NSW in early  1994 have exposed some 
potentially  serious gaps in  communications links among the various emergency
service  agencies. Solutions do  exist in theory but it may be some time before
they prevail nationally.

       The problem  wasn't one of  available  radio bandwidth  but rather lack
of  compatibility. This led to  a  situation where the various  agencies  were 
forced  to  communicate  via a haphazard,makeshift network patched together to
meet the crisis on a  moment to moment basis. Added to this was the lack of
compatibility  with the interstate teams that poured in to assist. This led to
a delay in entering the interstate volunteers into the battle.

       The NSW  Fire Brigade  has a  sophisticated network with 12 VHF channels
but the  Bush Fire Service  employs a  combination of VHF, UHF trunked mobile
radio to CB radio. Add to this  the  other services involved and you have a
confusing situation in  providing communication interconnection.

       At the height of the blaze Telecom threw as much  goodwill,time, human
resources and mobile handsets and base stations  as it could spare into the
fray although  their mobile  network suffered some congestion as a result of
this.  Their two Network Management Centres in Sydney and Melbourne  could
monitor  the fires progress by the traffic loads in and out of the affected
areas.

       The Spectrum Management Agency were forced to provide  fast service for
granting requests to clear the use of frequencies. SMA data  on  the  emergency
 frequencies  in  use  across  the nation highlight how complex and confusing
interconnection can be.

       Parochialism and empire  building are  believed by  some to be  largely
to  blame  for the  present  situation  and  the  only solution  may  be  for 
Federal  Government to consider a national strategy.

       The Future: Within a year or more the State should have its NSW
Government Radio Network (GRN), a  new  integrated , digitally capable  trunked
 mobile  radio  system  designed  to link all the government departments.
Implementation is due to start this  month beginning  with the Sydney ,
Wollongong  and Newcastle  areas with some country corridors by the end of the
year.

       Six years in the development this system has had input from a variety of
government interested agencies. The GRN will  replace 30 existing networks
requiring 200 base stations  down to a single network with 40 base stations.
The only immediate  problem is that it will take a  number of  years  before
this  system  is  capable of covering the entire state. 

       The  Bush  Fire  Service  in  the  mean  time  is trying to rationalise 
its  present  network into a  single band and provide standardised
communications equipment and procedures.