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North Queensland TCU Surveillance Coverage
Civil Air has written in previous bulletins about issues with surveillance coverage around Rockhampton Airport and the issues that is causing for our members working in North Queensland TCU. These issues continue, including during a recent maintenance event where the Mt Alma radar (the only source of surveillance) was taken out of service for emergency maintenance.
This week, Civil Air has again reiterated what the Union believes is a necessity for an ADSB receiver to be installed near Rockhampton. Advocacy on this issue is being targeted at Executive level management of Airservices.
Following repeated advocacy, Airservices has now advised that they are investigating budget options to fund the installation of this receiver. This is a promising signal however until the project is actually funded and completed, Civil Air will continue to push the issue.

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Aircraft vanishing from ‘second-rate’ Queensland radar
By Matthew Denholm
February 11, 2023
Aircraft are regularly disappearing from radars on approach to Queensland’s busy Rockhampton and Mackay airports, with air traffic controllers blaming “not-fit-for-purpose” radars and warning of “compromised safety”.
The Weekend Australian has obtained detailed radar coverage logs, revealing 221 incidents of aircraft dropping off radars on ¬approach to the two airports from July 27, 2022 to January 26, 2023. These logs show aircraft disappearing from radars usually for moments or minutes, but sometimes longer, with comments such as “did not return at all”, “never ¬returned”, and “leaving surveillance coverage intermittently”.
Pilots have been warned to ¬expect delays and airspace restrictions to work around the problem, which controllers say is due to a radar system “not fit for purpose” and needing urgent improvement.
Controllers say the approach by aircraft to Rockhampton and Mackay was previously handled by the local air traffic control tower. However, due to increased traffic, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority directed Airservices Australia to provide a stand-alone radar approach service.
The problem, controllers say, is that Airservices has baulked at the cost of installing a new Terminal Approach Radar, or TAR system, tailor-made for tracking arriving aircraft.
“A TAR has a specific scan rate that makes it suitable for use for approach – the (en route) radar being used for Mackay and Rockhampton approach is not a TAR, therefore they are having ¬issues,” said an experienced controller, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Radar tracks will drop out for periods of time while making an approach to Mackay or Rockhampton, making them temporarily invisible to the controller.
“We see an approach service being provided with a radar not fit for purpose … This is what happens when you don’t put the required time, money and resources into providing an adequate approach service – safety is compromised.”
One controller described the situation was “not as safe as it should be” and said that at the very least improvements should be made by installing more ground signal stations – known as ADS-B sites – in the area to address the black spots. The ADS-B system uses equipment on board aircraft to broadcast its precise location to ground stations, which relay them to air traffic control.
An Airservices Australia spokeswoman said there was no threat to public safety but that radar and ADS-B improvements in the area were planned.
“Claims of any safety threat to the travelling public at Rockhampton and Mackay airports are irresponsible and inaccurate,” the spokeswoman said. “No aircraft safety incidents have occurred.
“Our technical experts developed a solution to the issues raised during this (radar gap log) program that increases radar coverage and will be implemented within the next three months.
“An additional surveillance safety measure, ADS-B, will be implemented at both Rockhampton and Mackay in the first half of 2024, once the required safety assessments have been completed and approved.”
Sources said Airservices had issued official Notices to Airmen warning of “delays and restrictions” due to radar issues, covering areas within 20NM of Rockhampton, below 6000ft, and northwest of Mackay, also below 6000ft.
Controllers say when the radar drops out, they must use other ways to separate aircraft, including directing planes to different altitudes and denying smaller aircraft access to controlled airspace. Such measures had caused delays.
Dozens of safety risk reports had been made about the radar gaps. However, it is understood at least one shift manager had been asked to stop submitting them.
The log was started to try to provide a better understanding of areas of greatest concern.

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Senator CANAVAN: Chair, I know we're running out of time, but I've just got a few questions on the radar at the Rockhampton and Mackay airports. Have you seen the reports?
Mr Harfield: Yes, I have.
Senator CANAVAN: The reports are that some unnamed officials—I'm mindful of that—said it was a second-rate radar and that there have been 221 incidents since July last year of aircraft dropping off the radars on approach to Rockhampton or Mackay. I'm particularly interested to know whether or not ADS-B equipment will be installed at these airports soon and, if not, why not?
Mr Harfield: I need to go back to the initial statement. The report that was in the Australian is incorrect.
CHAIR: That's a shock. My God.
Senator WHITE: Oh, who knew?
CHAIR: My God, Murdoch did something wrong.
Senator CANAVAN: Well, hang on. I'm interested in the explanation here. In fairness, it's not a report from the Australian; it's evidently an unnamed official person.
Mr Harfield: Correct, but I just want to say that it was reported in the Australian. Prior to July last year, the airspace around Rockhampton and Mackay was controlled from the tower without the use of any radar. So it was done, how we would call, procedurally. Although they could get some sort of situation awareness, it was actually managed without the radar, even though we had radar coverage there. In July we transitioned not only Rockhampton and Mackay but also Launceston and Hobart, where we are utilising the radar and managing it from either Brisbane Centre or Melbourne Centre, as we do for Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne, and started running them like we would a capital city aerodrome.
In terms of utilising the radar, radar is a line-of-sight technology, and it cannot always see around mountains.
But what it did provide was a safety enhancement because we were able to use the safety alerts that are utilised with our air traffic control system in our centres. For example, one of the safety alerts that was introduced and didn't exist before July was what we would call the minimum safe altitude warning, where the system sends an alert if the pilot goes below the lower safe altitude terrain. That did not exist prior to July.
The reports that are mentioned were conducted at our request. When we put radar in and were starting to utilise it for the first time, it had to be tuned. So we wanted reports from the controllers about where they saw aeroplanes drop out or where there were holes in the coverage. Prior to July, they were being separated without the use of radar and that continues to be done today, even if there is radar coverage and there's a dropout. So there is no issue with safety. The reason we wanted to do that is so that we could tune the radar.
On 3 and 4 March—coming up in a couple of weeks—our techs are going up to the Mount Alma radar, where they will tune the radar, and some of these holes will disappear as a result of re-tuning the radar. In conjunction with that, we are supplementing this with the introduction of ADS-B and continuing that coverage. Further to that, because both radar and even ADS-B are terrestrial-type technologies—you might have seen recently that Skykraft, a company that's a spinoff from the University of New South Wales, put up their first satellite as a proof of concept. We are starting to utilise and explore that so that ADS-B as well as communications are coming from satellite, which means we don't get holes anymore because it's looking down. So we're continuing to try to enhance safety. That's the background to that.
Senator CANAVAN: Apparently this article is saying that air traffic controllers are claiming that Airservices Australia is baulking at the cost of installing a new TAR system and blamed that for the delays in the ADS-B as well. Are you rejecting that?
Mr Harfield: That is not correct. I absolutely reject that.
Senator CANAVAN: Are you saying air traffic controllers are wrong? Have you spoken to air traffic controllers yourself?
Mr Harfield: Yes, I speak to them all the time. This is the first time this has been raised.
Senator CANAVAN: They have not raised that with you?
Mr Harfield: Correct.
Senator CANAVAN: There was a report in The Australian that at least one shift manager had been asked to stop submitting safety reports. Have you investigated whether that is true?
Mr Harfield: I have investigated that. What was asked—this is similar to what Senator McKenzie said about some complaints—was that when we identified a particular gap in the radar coverage there's no point continuing to report on that time and time again, because we have an action in place. Anything new, or something that we
have not already got registered, we're happy to take on the report for, but there's no point continuing to report on the same issue when we've got something being done.
Senator CANAVAN: When will the ADS-B system be installed in Rockhampton and Mackay?
Mr Harfield: There is some ADS-B already in place, so we're making sure that feed comes into the system. Additional sites will come online early next year.
Senator CANAVAN: You might also want to brief the department. They didn't have any idea that this was even reported, which shocked me, given the nature of this article. You'd think people in the aviation policy team would be monitoring the media for these sorts of stories. I thank you very much for your information, Mr Harfield; it's very helpful.
CHAIR: Thank you, Mr Harfield, and your officers. It is a terribly damning headline when you read that, so I thank you very much for clearing that up for us.

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B81/26 REVIEW B2308/25
RADAR SERVICES AND RADAR BASED INFO SERVICE LTD DUE RADAR COVERAGE
NORTH WEST OF MACKAY BLW 6000FT
DELAYS AND RESTRICTIONS MAY OCCUR
FROM 01 132227 TO 04 100800 EST

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B80/26 REVIEW B2307/25
RADAR SERVICES AND RADAR BASED INFO SERVICE LTD DUE RADAR COVERAGE
WITHIN 20NM OF ROCKHAMPTON BLW 6000FT
DELAYS AND RESTRICTIONS MAY OCCUR
FROM 01 132224 TO 04 100800 EST

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