A seaside suburb just 40 kilometres north of Sydney's CBD remains in a mobile blackspot that some say is "potentially deadly" after a proposed telecommunications tower was knocked back.
Killcare Heights on the New South Wales Central Coast is home to around 1,500 households but no solution to the problem has been settled on despite years of advocacy.
Local resident Michael Corbett said the reception issues posed a serious safety risk.
"It's bad enough having individuals who have concerns for day-by-day communication," Mr Corbett said.
"But where it could be a medical emergency [or] a fire you really need to have reliable communications."
The president of the Killcare Surf Life Saving Club, Craig Sheppard, said the lack of reception could have devastating consequences outside of patrolled hours at the beach.
"If our volunteer patrollers or the council lifeguards are on then we have radio communications to our state operation centre who coordinate whatever emergency services backup we need," he said.
"But outside of those hours, it's potentially deadly."
The community has long fought for improved telecommunications in the region.
The area was highlighted as a priority location as part of the federal government's Mobile Black Spot funding program in 2018.
Gordon Reid, the federal member for Robertson, has conducted a number of pop-up mobile offices in the Killcare-Hardys Bay area since he was elected last year.
Dr Reid said there was a common theme.
"By far the biggest issue residents talk about is telecommunications and telecommunications blackspots," he said.
"I can feel their frustration."
A controversial proposal
One proposal that had been put forward was the construction of a 33-metre-tall telecommunications tower on Wards Hill Road at Killcare Heights.
During the 2018 Mobile Black Spot funding round, Telstra was awarded $510,000 to deliver a new mobile base station at Killcare.
The company proposed to co-locate its base station equipment on the newly proposed Optus tower, which Optus would commercially fund.
But after a five-year battle, plans to build the controversial tower have been rejected by the NSW Land and Environment Court due to height restrictions.
The proposal had divided locals, with some arguing it would be an eyesore. Others insisted it was desperately needed infrastructure.
Local developer Tony Denny led the court action against the tower, which was proposed to be built on council-owned land next to his property.
In 2021, the council and local planning panel gave the proposal the green light.
But earlier this month, the Land and Environment Court ruled the tower was significantly over the acceptable height variation and rejected the proposal.
Environmental lawyer and local resident Rod Dawson said he was not surprised by the court's ruling.
He said he had warned Central Coast Council and the local planning panel that the proposal was significantly over the height variation from the get-go.
"In relation to the height limit of 8.5 metres, which applies in that zone, this tower was a 280 per cent variation, which was much higher than the limit," he said.
Micro tower solutions
Despite the proposal being rejected by the Land and Environment Court, Dr Reid said he would continue to work with the telecommunications companies until all options were exhausted.
"Those discussions are still ongoing," he said.
"We're going to be having multiple discussions this week alongside Minister Michelle Rowland's office on a path forward for the community because it's important."
David Abrahams is a digital expert who lives in the area and helped map the blackspots almost a decade ago.
He said they had long called for the construction of "mini towers" as an alternative option.
"We can go to micro towers," Mr Abrahams said.
"[They produce] much less energy but are much more targeted into the valleys, as we suggested nine years ago."
Mr Corbett said he just wanted to see a solution rolled out on the ground as soon as possible.
"Yes, you know there's a tower and towers are ugly, but there are towers everywhere," he said.
"After a while, you don't even notice it. People don't notice telegraph poles as they drive along, and they're ugly as anything!"
