When Disasters Strike, Communities Step Up - 000 Must Too
Mums of the Hills has long advocated for improved telecommunications, standards and measure to hold corporations accountable. After yet another triple-0 call outage, I felt the need to write this blog. This blog isn’t just to share our community’s experience, but to add our voice to those calling for urgent national action. Too many times, Australians have been left without the most basic ability to call for help. This blog aims to shed light on those failures, learn from the experiences of others, and advocate for solutions that will save lives.
“Don’t do anything stupid”.
The image above is a screen shot of the last WhatsApp message I sent to my family before all mobile access was lost back in June 2021. We knew the storm would be bad and so when the storm ripped through the Dandenong Ranges, we expected damage and power outages. Given the scale of the destruction, trees across roads and power lines a tangled mess, we knew we’d be without electricity for longer than what we’d ever experienced (7 days had been our longest). However, what was most concerning about that situation was what we couldn’t see or do anything about: we couldn’t make triple-0 calls.
In those long days and nights, the thought of someone being injured and unable to get help haunted us. What if someone had a heart attack? What if a family was still trapped inside their home? For days, emergency calls weren’t possible. Not hours. Days. I pleaded with my neighbours not to do anything stupid during the clean-up as help wouldn’t be coming. In a region already vulnerable to bushfire, storm damage, and landslides, being cut off from the most basic lifeline was so isolating. We felt like we’d been abandoned.
Sadly, the June 2021 storm wasn’t an isolated incident. The 2022–23 Victorian floods left entire towns cut off and communications drowned along with the infrastructure. The February 2024 storms once again saw widespread outages in Victoria, with triple-0 services inaccessible in some areas of the Dandenong Ranges. Cyclone Alfred and the North Queensland floods in 2025 hit communities already on edge and with NBN services down and sporadic phone access, getting help and finding information was incredibly challenging.
In reality, living in country prone to disasters in nature means we need to accept that towers and lines can be damaged in extreme weather. In 2025, however, when satellite technology is affordable and proven, Australians should never again be left unable to call for help.
Telecommunications Resilience
Since the Black Summer bushfires, there has been increasing pressure to address the problem. The $40.9 million commitment to deliver improved mobile coverage to peri-urban communities like the Dandenong Ranges, across Australia at risk of natural disasters was welcomed. Other Federal projects such as the national Black Spot program, extending mobile voice and SMS coverage, and rolling out a national disaster mobile alert system are in various stages of progress and again promising. But with the alert system unlikely to be ready for use until 2027, and another bushfire season approaching, our patience, much like our nerves, is worn out.
Current on the ground solutions, like muster trucks or portable towers, are well-intentioned but inaccessible to many in areas when most roads are impassable. These trucks can’t reach isolated communities, but satellites can. Satellites don’t rely on clear roads, power lines, or cell towers. They orbit above the damage, connecting us regardless of what’s happening on the ground.
Telstra recently announced a new mobile-to-satellite service using SpaceX’s Starlink satellites - a small but significant breakthrough for people outside land-based 4G and 5G networks. For now, though, it’s only available on Samsung Galaxy S25 handsets. That’s welcome progress, but it highlights the bigger issue: we are still relying on private corporations to determine who gets access to life-saving technology, and when. Optus has already shown us how fragile that trust can be. When lives depend on being able to call for help, satellite access should not be a premium add-on for those who can afford the right phone. It should be built into our national infrastructure.
The recent Optus outages demonstrate that these failures aren’t confined to natural disasters. In 2023, Optus suffered a major 000 outage. Now, in 2025, it has happened again, twice in quick succession and with devastating consequences. These weren’t storms, fire or floods, but preventable systems failures.
It’s also not the first time lives have been lost due to weaknesses in our emergency call system. In 2022, a damning report into Victoria’s triple-0 operator, ESTA, found that funding shortfalls and chronic staff shortages had left the service overwhelmed. Calls went unanswered during the pandemic and major storms, with tragic outcomes. Families were left waiting because the system itself buckled under pressure.
Taken together, the ESTA crisis, network outages, and failures during and after disasters creates a clear and uncomfortable message: Australia’s telecommunications and emergency systems are fragile, underfunded, under-prepared, and without adequate backup. Lives are being lost as a result. This should be a national wake-up call.
Whether it’s human error, infrastructure collapse, or corporate oversight, the result is the same - Australians can’t rely on 000 when it matters most. Communities like the Dandenong Ranges have been raising the alarm for years, but the failures now extend across the country.
Lessons from Los Angeles
It’s tempting to think that if Australia had a national alert system like the United States, our problems would be solved. But the devastating Los Angeles fires of 2025 show us that having a system isn’t enough if it can’t function under real-world disaster conditions.
When fires tore through L.A. County, the official review revealed:
Delays of 20–30 minutes before evacuation alerts were sent in some areas.
False alarms, including one that mistakenly triggered a county-wide evacuation alert to nearly 10 million people because of a software glitch.
Infrastructure damage to towers and power lines that left residents without mobile alerts at all.
Bureaucratic bottlenecks, where only two trained staff had the authority to issue alerts for the entire county, and one had to evacuate.
Underfunding and understaffing of emergency management, leaving the system vulnerable to collapse at the very moment it was most needed.
The result was confusion, panic, and in some cases, residents left without any timely warning. Concerningly, during my own PhD research in California into the 2017 Santa Rosa wildfires, the system failures were already known.
What this shows is that Australia cannot simply build a national alert system and assume the job is done. To succeed, it must be:
Fast: alerts need to be issued automatically or with minimal human delay.
Accurate: clear geographic targeting to avoid false alarms and loss of trust.
Redundant: with satellite backup so alerts work even when towers and roads fail.
Well-staffed and resourced: no single points of failure, and no underfunded emergency centres left carrying the load.
Balance community understanding so there isn’t an over-reliance on this system and a complacency to act in accordance to forecasts and your own plans.
We’ve already seen the consequences of underinvestment here in Australia. In 2022, a damning report into Victoria’s triple-0 operator ESTA found that funding shortfalls and chronic staff shortages left calls unanswered during storms and the pandemic, with fatal outcomes. Just like Los Angeles, the issue wasn’t the absence of technology — it was the lack of resourcing, staffing, and backup that made the system fail when people needed it most.
If Los Angeles, with one of the most advanced systems in the world, can stumble so badly, Australia must ensure that our long-delayed national alert system learns from these failures. Otherwise, we risk repeating them.
Prevention Must Be Part of the Solution
Much of this blog has focused on what happens when disasters strike — and how our telecommunications and emergency systems so often fail us. But we also need to ask the harder question: why are these disasters happening so often, and what are we doing to prevent them?
The costs of managing bushfires are rising dramatically. In the U.S., the Forest Service’s fire-related expenses increased from 16% of its budget in 1995 to 52% in 2015. That shift reflects how much harder it has become to control fires once they start — but it also highlights how much more we should be investing in prevention.
Here in Victoria, research shows that tackling human-caused ignitions is critical to reducing bushfire risk. This isn’t just about deliberate actions. Many recent fires in our state were sparked by poorly managed burn-offs — accidents that turned into catastrophes. Prevention means raising awareness, shifting behaviours, and giving communities the knowledge and resources to manage risk safely.
As the impacts of climate change grow, we must work together to prevent or at least mitigate the risks of disasters like bushfires. Small, collective actions — like ensuring fire-safe practices, reporting risks, and staying informed — can make a significant difference. Every fire avoided is a disaster prevented, and that protects not just our homes, but also our ecosystems, our health, and our future.
That’s why we need dedicated funding for research into prevention and for community-led programs that build networks of trust and action. These networks are essential not only for creating community expectations around hazard prevention, but also for serving as resilient communication systems when disaster does strike. In many cases, it is local people — not distant infrastructure — who are the first and most reliable source of safety information. Supporting these networks means building resilience before, during, and after the emergency.
Whether it’s human error, infrastructure collapse, or corporate oversight, the result is the same — Australians can’t rely on 000 when it matters most. Communities like the Dandenong Ranges have been raising the alarm for years, but the failures now extend across the country.
We urgently need:
A fully operational national disaster alert system — no more delays, no more excuses.
Satellite backup for all emergency calls — ensuring 000 connects even if towers and lines fail.
Mandatory redundancy standards for telecommunications companies — with clear accountability when lives are put at risk.
Investment in prevention and community-led networks — to stop disasters before they start and to ensure that when they do, local people are connected, informed, and supported.
Lives have already been lost. We cannot wait for the next cyclone, fire, or outage to expose the cracks in our system yet again. Technology like satellites is vital, but it is only one part of the solution. We also need fully funded emergency services, investment in prevention, and support for community-led networks that keep people connected and informed before, during, and after disasters.
Australians deserve more than patch-ups and promises. We deserve systems we can trust — systems that reduce the risks of disasters, help prevent them where possible, and keep us safe when the worst does happen. Whether you live in the Dandenong Ranges, North Queensland, or the middle of Melbourne, one thing is certain: when you call for help, the call must go through. And when you work to prevent disaster, that effort must be backed. Anything less is unacceptable.
References
AFAC (2021). Public resources on emergency management and disaster resilience. Retrieved from: AFAC
ABC News (2025, March 5). New disaster mobile alert system overdue, not operational during Cyclone Alfred. Retrieved from: ABC News
ABC News (2025, Sept 23). Timeline on Optus triple-0 outage: what we know. Retrieved from: ABC News
SBS News (2025). Optus has been hit by another triple zero outage. Retrieved from: SBS
ABC News (2025, Feb 25). Labor pledges expansion of voice and SMS coverage. Retrieved from: ABC News
ABC News (2022, May 19). Report into Victoria’s triple-0 system ESTA released. Retrieved from: ABC News
The Guardian (2025, Jan 29). Los Angeles wildfire alert system under scrutiny after deadly blaze. Retrieved from: The Guardian
AP News (2025). Review finds delayed alerts, staffing shortfalls during LA fires. Retrieved from: AP News
Washington Post (2025, Aug 4). Underfunding left LA County unprepared for wildfire evacuations. Retrieved from: Washington Post
Robert Garcia, U.S. House of Representatives (2025, May 10). False Alerts Final Report. Retrieved from: Congressional Report PDF
Time Magazine (2025). Evacuation alert error caused confusion during LA fires. Retrieved from: Time
LAEDC (2025). Economic Impacts of the 2025 California Wildfires. Retrieved from: LAEDC
Victorian Government (2024) Inquiry into the 2022 Flood Event in Victoria. Retrieved from: https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/floodinquiry