Short-sighted coastal radar junked
15.03.2007
MILLION radar system that the Howard Government promised would help to protect Australia's borders has been scrapped because it cannot detect the type of boats used by poachers and people-smugglers.
The closure of the radar facility on Pumpkin Island near Cape York was confirmed yesterday, after three years of operation.
A spokesman for Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said the trial by Customs and the Defence Department had cost $16.9 million, with an additional $3 million expected to be spent for equipment and site restoration.
``The primary outcome of the trial was that the system could not detect any additional targets that were not already collected by the existing surveillance systems that are used in the Torres Strait,'' the spokesman said.
``The project was always a technical demonstrator-type activity to establish whether it could be used to detect low-profile targets such as small fishing boats.
``The type of vessel that Coastwatch was looking for -- namely very small wooden fishing vessels -- were not able to be detected.''
A 10-year lease was negotiated with Torres Strait Island communities to trial the Surface-wave Extended Coastal Area Radar system, which was installed and run by Daronmont Technologies, based at Williamtown, near Newcastle in NSW.
Indigenous land-use agreements were entered into to allow the system to be installed on Dauan Island in the northern Torres Strait and the uninhabited Pumpkin Island near Badu Island.
When launching the project in 2004, then defence minister Robert Hill and customs minister Chris Ellison said the radar trial ``delivered on the Government's 2001 border protection election commitment''.
``This trial shows that the Australian Government is committed to using the latest technology to protect our country from drugs, disease, illegal immigration and fishing, and other threats,'' they said. ``The radar's two-to-three year trial begins in August. During this time it will provide 24-hour, wide-area surveillance of aircraft, ships and boats travelling in the Torres Strait.
``It will also increase the capacity of Defence and Coastwatch to detect and intercept immigration, quarantine and fisheries offenders, assist with search and rescue operations, and provide early storm warnings.''
However, islanders have questioned why the facility was not used to help locate an Immigration Department vessel, the Malu Sara, which sank on October 15, 2005, just off Badu Island with the loss of five Torres Strait Islanders.
Asked by The Australian last Friday if the SECAR system was active on the night of October 14 and morning of October 15, 2005, a Defence Department spokesman replied that the system was still ``under trial'' at that time and ``there were occasions when the radar was not operating''.
Asked if the system could, or should, have been able to detect the whereabouts of the Malu Sara when it was in trouble so those on board could be saved, the spokesman said: ``Defence is unable to provide further information on the trial of the SECAR during this period as this information may be relevant to a pending coronial inquiry into the Malu Sara.''
