This page describes the chronological progress of
the DereelNBN Fixed Wireless tower, affectionately referred to as
the Radiation Tower in recognition of Wendy McClelland, who
coined the term. Part of this is a paraphrase of my online
diary.
I get a call from Bryan Scott of NBN asking if I would be prepared to have the tower erected
on my property. I was interested, but there was no follow-up.
The site of the Radiation Tower has been
quiet now for over two weeks. I've assumed that this is to allow the concrete of the base
to harden, but it's also a concern because since the last real work we have a new,
(NBN)-unfriendly government. So it was good
to hear from Chris Bahlo today that Powercor had been on site and apparently installed a new transformer:
The truck had an emblem from Task National Pty Ltd, a company that appears to have no web
site. But I found references to employees, one of them a telecommunications engineer, so I
assume they're doing more than just laying a power cable.
The weather has been wet recently—in the last 10 days, we've had nearly 50 mm of rain, and
it shows. Heard a report from Wendy, our neighbour across the road, that she had seen a
crane bogged down in the paddock where the Radiation Tower is being erected. It sounds plausible:
Chris Bahlo told me she saw a crane there this morning, too, so I went by later—this may be
becoming a daily exercise at the moment. There was no crane there, but it's clear that
they're assembling the tower in preparation for erection:
This is from my Internet connection options map. Our house is the yellow pin at the bottom left, and
the tower is the blue pin at top right. The others are historical: discounted alternate
sites for the tower.
I suppose it would be visible from the north of the property even from the ground. But not
that important: we don't need strict optical visibility.
The work on the Radiation Tower this
week looked like completion, so off to take a closer look. Up to now I have only taken
photos from the road, but it looked like time to go in and take a closer look. For some
reason they've locked the gates leading to the tower, though that's not the case with the
other towers I've seen. In any case, it's easy enough to get in:
