North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hemi wrote: nope! no problem with the equipment, more the unlicensed vhf users that have no clue!!
Theres no need for a log-in / record system up here in my opinion.

Cant ague that the clueless operators were a bit of a pain at times, plus I think it entirely possible the clueless factor referred to could be an even bigger issue up here unless there was some time of translator program attached to the system the transmissions percolated through. It still remains that a life saved is a life saved. Probably wont be as big an issue now with the new regs as the giant trips far far away aren't quite as prevalent.

There was a dude back in about 2007/08 that bought a boat (think it might have been the old barefoot marine boat)
His plan was to go out every weekend etc and sell ice, bait, fishing gear, tow people, provide spare fuel and be there as a service provider etc etc
From memory he lasted 2 or 3 weekends and gave up...

I agree there is a real need to have both a working coastguard/ volunteer marine rescue system up here like they do in many southern states and a viable radio repeater system that offers coverage territory wide. The problem also is that the current radio repeaters are rarely monitored apart from weekends and for a limited time span in the best cases.

These systems really do save lives, whether it is a sunken boat, a serious accident or a heart attack out at sea, they are also invaluable in non-life threatening situations like a motor failure that don't constitute an emergency but are serious none the less if your 200km from the ramp with no way of calling for help apart from an epirb.......an expensive option!

AFANT is seeking to address this issue and if more recreational fishermen get behind this idea there is more chance of it succeeding.

Hi Tristan
All valid coments, so what needs to be done ?
I've done many tow / rescues and the times I've actually been
able contact Darwin Harbour Control by radio their help was very
poor indeed, Unless someone is near death your on your own.

Just look at the Finniss river accident ,the poor bloke had to wait over
3 hours for rescue. I don't Know all the facts but the CareFlight chopper
was "Unavailable" , What only one chopper for the Whole NT????. The cops had
to punch around from Darwin and the victims are trying to use a phone
system that's useless . Dundee isn't that remote theses days!

I'm not having a shot at any of our emergency services they do a
great job , but obviously need to be better equipped .

A working fully monitored radio network would be a good start .

Cheers
Jeff

Hi Jeff,

The recreational fishing advisory committee is currently in discussions with the Department of Transport’s Marine Safety Branch in regards to improving the improving the marine VHF radio network and the marking of agreed navigation hazards. The next meeting is on the 17th of August. I'll keep you up to date on the outcome of these discussions. I sincerely hope we can get something up ASAP because as you pointed out, its sorely needed.

I am also going to raise this issue at the meeting next week of the Water Safety Advisory Committee

Sounds good Tristan, look forward to see how you get on mate.

Edo

Thanks for the reply Tristan . I hope they listen because
the issue just gets put on the back burner year after year.

Looking forward to any updates,,,cheers

Hello Tristan

A couple of years ago the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard appeared in NT and were going to do wonderful things with a bucket of eggs and a big stick in respect of a NT wide VHF radio network including talk-through-repeaters.

They claimed to have an arrangement with Telstra about the use of Telstra remote towers and access to Telstra's linking network.

The network was to be centrally monitored.

I designed a network plan which was endorsed by Telstra's technical assessment division and was ready for implementation.

The next move was to be the AVCG's to proceed with implementation.

And it's still the AVCG's next move as they disappeared into smoke and never heard of to this day despite many attempts to contact them.

Their implementation schedule and work plans were very impressive and I've still got copies of them along with the network design details.

AVCG stuck their head up when the local FFF fraternity was organising the Ch21 repeater on Palmerston water tower.

A bit of detail on that AVCG stuff is in the FFF forum. Some under the heading of Offshore VHF reception.

In addition, I think there was another thread about the project itself.

I can forward to you those plans and schedules if you wish to have them for the meeting.

My advice to you is to be very sceptical about any input from the AVCG if they attend.

Hi ronje , thought you might have some good input
on this thread
As you can see we are still living in the dark ages here,,

jeffish wrote:Hi ronje , thought you might have some good input
on this thread
As you can see we are still living in the dark ages here,,

The surprising part Jeff is the amount of people that want it to stay that way a sort of mistrust that it's best not to rely on something in case it dosent work.

If they can bring in Boat Rego,Licence,more Green Zones and Mandatory wearing of life jackets we won't need a VMR.

G'day Ronje.

I've read the AVCG proposal and our correspondence files with them dating back to 2010 and your right it the proposal was excellent. My understanding from correspondence is it failed because of lack of funding despite AVCG trying to organise a sponsor.

Funding will always be a problem as government is reluctant to pay for a service which only a minority of the public uses. I know a portion of funds from boat licences is used to fund coastguard rescue services and radio stations in NSW & QLD
but unfortunately we don't have a similar system up here.

While I am not going to open up the can of worms around boat licences the ultimate problem is lack of funds. I am not sure how to address this problem but as promised I will raise this at the Water Safety Committee on Tuesday and the recreational fishing advisory committee later on in August.

Ronje, Can you give me a call if you have a few minutes for a chat this afternoon. I'd like to pick your brains prior to this meeting tomorrow.

I recall all of the fantastic work that was done on FFF by a bunch of selfless and committed members. As a result it seems that we have a good plan/structure in existence with good technical infrastructure but lack the recurrent funding to implement the operation.

While I'm against unnecessary taxation it seems to me that a user pays system is inevitable if we want maritime safety in the Top End.

Boat registration is unlikely in the current political climate so imposing a point of sale levy may not work there.

However, it seems to me that those who might use such a system could be identified by their ownership of a boat trailer. Boat trailer registration is already ridiculously cheap. I doubt that owners would even notice an annual levy to support the implementation of a marine recue/recovery programme.

The peripheral regulations could be based on existing systems down south and the political will to legislate the new regs could come from a comparison between the costs of search and rescue where there is little information about the location of the vessel and search and rescue where the rescue vehicle is in contact with the vessel.

Regards

Mud

A few years ago we had a crack at starting one up. It didn’t last long mainly due to the attitude up here that we don’t need one. As you say down south there are Volunteer rescue mobs fighting over each other to get out and help but they are mainly run by retirees with plenty of time on their hands.
People said it was due to the small top end population but there are heaps of VRO’s dotted all over the coast with much smaller populations than here.

I was astounded when I first got here to find nothing like I was used to down south. Even worse was the response with just a few people throwing their hands up to help but it just faded away.

I have tried many times to get Darwin radio to log in/out but they aren’t interested – bottom line is that they imparted such little confidence in their attitude that there is no was way I could trust my life to someone like them to even put the wheels into motion to even make the initial ph call to get a rescue underway.
When you boil it right down, It comes down to trusting your life on someone to report you lost and starting a search.

Re the comments about no rescue organisations here like down south, I don’t understand. They do a great job and have saved endless lives. Do a search and you see just how many lives have been saved by these selfless people.
Why is it a bad thing for someone to help others.

I have raised the issue with the police and their response was that i should log my trip online with AMSAR - EVERY TIME.

one of the former forumites now flies the careflight chopper and he talked about the hard time they have in locating an epirb. he said to make sure you have an epirb fitted with GPS - like he said that few extra minutes might be the difference in life or death.

Unfortunately the bottom line is that you have to rely on yourself. Get a sat phone. $700 for a potential life saver is cheap.
or just get Jeffish on your speed-dial because he has done more rescues than the poor old VMO here.

Proof is in the pudding.... We dont need rescue services like sth states.

But if you and ya mates wanna get a boat, call yaselves 'rescue' and go play boaties... Knock yaself out....