Improving safety in the Snowy Mountains

Snowy 2.0 is the largest, nation-building renewable energy project in Australia, generating more than 4,000 direct jobs into the Snowy Mountains. During construction, the project places additional pressure on infrastructure to support new and existing communities who live, work, and play in this spectacular alpine area of NSW.

A noticeable impact of the Snowy 2.0 project has been more car, truck, and construction vehicles travelling on the Snowy Mountains Highway between Cooma and Adaminaby, and around Tumut and the Polo Flat industrial area. However, because of this area's poor mobile phone coverage, when an emergency or road incident happened, the main method of notifying first responders was to rely on a passing motorist stopping to help or using a two-way radio of a nearby construction worker vehicle.

As part of the Regional Digital Connectivity: Snowy Mountains Highway Mobile Safety Project, the Department of Regional NSW worked in partnership with Snowy Hydro Limited to fund and deliver five interim small cell mobile base stations.

These interim base stations addressed an immediate need for better mobile phone coverage with more reliable access to 000 emergency calls and general mobile phone services along a 90km stretch of the Snowy Mountains Highway. Emergency services can now respond more quickly to incidents, workers in the area have phone coverage that enables better productivity, and local communities will benefit from improved digital infrastructure.

Regional NSW is now working with the telecommunications industry to develop a permanent solution for the Snowy Mountains Highway that will be available to all mobile phone users regardless of their mobile service provider.

“The interim small cell solution addresses the immediate need for 000 call coverage while a permanent mobile coverage solution along the Snowy Mountains Highway is developed.”

“The Regional Digital Connectivity program aims to address the 'digital divide' between metropolitan and regional NSW by overcoming barriers to connectivity through large-scale investment in regional mobile and internet infrastructure.”

Peter Adams, Director, Regional Digital Connectivity program.

As part of the NSW Connectivity Strategy the NSW Telco Authority identifies programs, such as the Snowy Mountains Highway Mobile Safety Project, and works collaboratively across all of Government to broaden the reach, impact, and value of individual Department strategies, and supporting measures for rapid implementation.