Community radio station making waves

A COMMUNITY radio station has become a resource for information on emergency incidences in Greater Bendigo for its work logging such occurrences since August last year.

KLFM, run by a team of volunteers, always has a tab open on VicEmergency from which presenters log incidences such as flooding, fires, road accidents, fallen trees, and others in the area.

Since the team started collecting the data, one of its consultants, Graeme Clarke, saw how the information could be useful for better management of extreme weather and accidents in the future.

“We would usually get three to four, maybe six a week, then the flood came, and we got to 3000 over the flood of 2022,” said Mr Clarke.

“When it went over the Eppalock Spillway, when it went through the Axedale Road, it’s got all that on it.

“There’s a timing sequence so they now know how far ahead they’ve got to be to do something, to warn people, and that’s what this is about.

“I then sat down and looked at the analysis of these and said this is useful for councils.”

Mr Clarke said he rang some local councils, who said they didn’t have the information and couldn’t get it.

A representative from Campaspe Shire Council sent Mr Clarke a letter, thanking the KLFM team for their work logging local incidences, and said its data will help determine if and where mitigation controls should be implemented in the municipality.

“The information you have gathered will significantly impact the accuracy of the flood mapping and will undoubtedly lead to better outcomes in the community,” said the Campaspe Shire Council spokesperson.

He then forwarded VicEmergency the data KLFM had collected.

“Within 10 minutes of the start of that conversation, the people concerned, the controllers or coordinators of the website, said ‘it’s a no brainer, of course the information has value, but we cannot put it out’,” said Mr Clarke.

According to Mr Clarke, VicEmergency had to get permission of groups such as Victoria State Emergency Service, Country Fire Authority, Victoria Police, and VicRoads to report on emergency events the groups respectively manage.

Mr Clarke said VicEmergency is not trying to make it difficult for the public to find such information, but that it’s not been asked for before.

“It’s a bit like putting out an invitation but not sending it to anybody,” said Mr Clarke.

“They never saw the value in the information, and what I’ve given them is proof that there’s a value in it, and that people need it in terms of planning.”

KLFM, 96.5FM in Bendigo, caters primarily to audiences over age 50, many of whom would be unlikely to know about or use VicEmergency’s online emergency map, said Mr Clarke.

“Unless you’ve got that EMV site up on your TV while you’re driving, we’re providing an audio of It. That’s the difference,” he said.

VicEmergency has been contacted about whether its stored historical emergency data will be made publicly available in the future.

KLFM is always looking for announcers said Mr Clarke, and advertising is welcome.