GPSA Slams BoM Website Overhaul as Eyre Peninsula Farmers Stuck in Long-Running Radar Black Hole
Regional South Australians are once again gob-smacked and left wondering how the people in charge make their decisions. Farmers on the Eyre Peninsula are still trying to run one of the state’s major cropping regions with weather information that barely passes the pub test, while the Bureau of Meteorology poured almost $100 million into a website. A website! And judging by the feedback, one that makes the old version look like a masterpiece.
Meanwhile, EP growers are still navigating a radar black hole the size of the peninsula itself.
Grain Producers SA has had enough, and rightly so. The BoM’s own figures now show the project didn’t cost the originally reported $4.1 million, but a staggering $96.5 million. All while the Eyre Peninsula continues without a Doppler radar, leaving farmers to piece together forecasts from radars hundreds of kilometres away.
GPSA Chief Executive Officer Brad Perry said funding a Doppler radar on the Eyre Peninsula would have cost only a fraction of the website revamp.
“South Australian farmers have continually been told there’s no money for a Doppler radar on the Eyre Peninsula, so grain producers in the largest cropping region in the state have very little accurate information about storms, hail events or strong rainfall which affect cropping decisions, risk management and insurance.”
“Growers on the Eyre Peninsula are being told to rely on data from Adelaide and Ceduna radars, which are hundreds of kilometres away. That’s not good enough for safety, it’s not good enough for precision farming and it’s certainly not good enough for a region that contributes billions of dollars to the State’s economy.”
“It’s hard to explain to Eyre Peninsula grain producers, who are making major financial decisions based on BoM forecasts in a radar black hole, why the Federal Government can afford a digital facelift, but not the critical infrastructure such as a Doppler radar that would actually improve forecasting accuracy.”
“Farmers are spreading fertiliser, spraying, harvesting and planning logistics based on incomplete information. Every time the forecast changes, it costs them and now taxpayers have also had to fund a BoM website upgrade that has been widely criticised since its launch and cost almost five times what it would have to fund a Doppler radar for the Eyre Peninsula.”
Mr Perry said installation of a radar on the Eyre Peninsula must be a priority for both the State and Federal Governments.
“We’re not asking for anything new or experimental. Doppler radar technology is available across Australia but for some reason, remains out of reach for the one of the most productive agricultural regions in South Australia and Australia.”
“It’s time to start investing in what grain producers and regional communities really need, accurate, localised weather data through an Eyre Peninsula Doppler radar.”
Check the BoM radar map and see the gap for yourself!
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