A PLEDGE was announced at the Parkerville Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade on Tuesday to provide $1.2 million to build generators for keeping telecommunications online in the event of an emergency.

Shire of Mundaring President Paige McNeil has advocated for improved telecommunications in the Perth Hills for about 12 months, bringing community concerns to state and federal leaders, including in Canberra as reported in Mundaring strengthen their ties in Canberra.

Ms McNeil said the federal Coalition election commitment was a direct response to sustained advocacy efforts, recognising the critical need for reliable communications during natural disasters.

“This is a win-win for our Perth Hills communities and volunteer bushfire brigades who’ve waited too long for reliable emergency telecommunications that ultimately help to protect and save lives,” she said.

Parkerville Bushfire Brigade captain Dan Wharton said without telecommunications services, emergency services had no other way to coordinate a response, so having backup was vital.

“We use radios and an app that communicates to volunteers, but other than that it’s all telecommunication,” he said.

“With what’s been suggested today, it definitely will help us and to keep that telecommunication up and help the community.’’

Mr Wharton said while extra towers would help, power to run them was essential so this new announcement was a needed solution.

Echo News asked how much telecommunication time 10 new generators would buy emergency services in the event of a power outage.

Mr Wharton said he believed the battery life of the towers with the current system was four hours.

“That gives us ample time to get the generators hooked up and start them off,” he said.

Ms McNeil added to the answer and said the generators could be refuelled to keep the communications on for as long as the emergency required.

“So the arrangement with Telstra is that the local government has what’s called the local emergency management orders and so Telstra will permit for these generators on the trailers to be housed at the volunteer bush fire brigade stations and then deployed to the towers under Telstra’s guidance,” she said.

“The issue with the telecommunications towers is that they’re in a daisy chain so you can’t just power one, you have to actually deploy these gensets out to the to chain of towers to be able to keep the telecommunications on in the local area.”