About
The MEPCC emergency radio network connects properties across the Mangrove, Yarramalong, Lower Hawkesbury and Wollombi districts, so neighbours can reach each other when everything else fails.
In a bad fire, flood or storm, we lose power, phone and internet, often for days. Roads get cut. For properties spread through these valleys, that means real isolation at exactly the moment help is needed most.
The MEPCC was formed after the 1994 bushfires. For years the answer was a telephone tree: a list of who rings who. It worked until it didn’t, because in a genuine emergency, the landlines and mobiles go down first.
The radio network doesn’t depend on any of that. Each station runs on backup power and talks directly to its neighbours. No towers, no exchange, no internet.
The Mangrove Emergency Planning & Communications Committee is a volunteer committee and a registered charity. It is an incorporated association, Y2398401, ABN 57 950 364 981.
The radio network was inaugurated in April 2024 and was funded under the Australian Government’s Black Summer Bushfire Recovery program. Nobody is paid. The equipment belongs to MEPCC and stays with the property it is installed at.