NSW Pushes Ahead with Site Rental Fees for Amateur Radio Repeaters Located on Crown Land

Phil Wait VK2DKN, in a news posting to WIA website, said  that The Director General of the NSW Department of Lands has written to the WIA upholding the Departments decision to impose a $367 fee (CPI indexed and subject to 5 yearly review) for each amateur radio facility located on NSW Crown Land.

The WIA wrote to the Director General in August arguing for special consideration for communications facilities maintained by small amateur radio clubs, and highlighting the strategic community resource that amateur radio communications facilities provide during emergencies.

In the Departments reply, (below), the Director General advises that the site rental fees are prescribed under NSW State legislation, and cannot be reduced below the minimum rent provisions in that legislation.

This is bad news for small amateur radio clubs which maintain repeater facilities on NSW Crown Land, and also for those larger clubs which have several affected repeater sites. The likely outcome is the closure of a number of rural amateur radio repeater facilities, or at least their relocation to less favourable sites.

On the other hand, larger well resourced clubs may welcome the opportunity to enter into an agreement which guarantees secure tenure for their repeater sites located on Crown Land.

Individual NSW amateur radio clubs adversely affected by this new fee should consider their position carefully. Failure to enter into a rental agreement when asked to do so by the NSW Department of Lands may result in eviction from a Crown Land site.

Source: The Wireless Institute of Australia News by Phil Wait - VK2DKN

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