Residents dudded over mobile phone tower

Residents near Sandown Park in lower Sandy Bay are vigorously opposing the construction of a 23 metre high Telstra communications tower in the park. The Hobart City Council has refused so far to halt construction despite a petition and a public meeting attended by 86 people.

Sandown Park is regarded as a 'sensitive area' because it is regularly used for children's sport including athletics and soccer and because a child care centre, Gymbaroo, catering for very young children, is less than a dozen steps from the base of Telstra's tower. Gymbaroo leases space in the Hobart Council-owned pavilion that also houses changing rooms and a canteen used by sporting groups.

Sensitive areas are supposed to have at least 200 metres clearance from the nearest mobile phone tower.

There is talk of adding an extra floor to the pavilion which would expose even more people to radiation from transmission aerials on Telstra's mast.

We object to the Hobart City Council's hypocritical decision to reluctantly (but unanimously) recommend approval for the tower's construction.

The Mercury wrote this account of the Hobart council meeting on 21 May. The council's development and environmental services committee gave Telstra the go-ahead but was critical of council officers, recommending that the council should "...widen its community consultation".

However a spokesman for residents opposing the tower, John Matthewson, says that neither Telstra nor the Hobart City Council had properly consulted adjacent householders as required.

The council claims that because there's a road between the park and adjacent houses, they have no statutory requirement to advise those householders of the planning application.

Mr Matthewson says the Council wrongly claims that Beach Road is the location of the tower. The address given in press advertisements and on signs was 17 Beach Road. This is not correct. Here is the map from Whereis on which the tower's approximate location has been marked. The park is clearly bounded by Sandown Avenue and Long Point Road - not Beach Road.

Telstra, according to Hobart's Lord Mayor Rob Valentine, received planning approval two years ago - thus, he says, "It's too late for the Council to take any action." However the communications industry's own code states that exhaustive consultation should have taken place before such towers are built - something residents say "did not occur".

Council officers agreed to Telstra's proposal for the tower (for its Next G network) in return for the 'free' installation of four lights at the lower Sandown Park ground. These lights, valued at $80,000, are intended to allow night-time soccer.

By accepting a one-off payment, the Hobart City Council may have foregone rental amounting to a potential $325,000. This is calculated on a 25 year lease at $13,000 per annum, figures commonly used on the mainland.


The council's placement of the concrete footings for the light towers has also affected Queenborough little athletics club, forcing a shift of their 100m and 400m tracks as well as the run-ups for long jump, triple jump and javelin. The outside circular track is now appreciably shorter, with tight curves.

For several years Sandown Park has also hosted Carols by Candlelight which attracts crowds of ten thousand or more.

John Matthewson took the pictures of the tower base but swears he didn't write the graffiti. (Psst - but we now know who did)