MEA expand into Western Australia with $265,000 Environmental Monitoring Network

South Australian based MEA have expanded into Western Australia with the roll out of a $265,000 environmental monitoring network for the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) that covers more than 1,150 kilometres from Geraldton to Esperance.

Earlier in the year, MEA successfully tendered to supply the 40 new automatic weather stations which make up the monitoring network designed to assist local growers and irrigators better use natural resources.

The network will allow Western Australian growers to monitor localised temperature, humidity, wind and rainfall from their desktop computer or mobile phone.

The new weather stations have been installed to expand the existing network operated by DAFWA and provide growers with increased certainty when making on-farm decisions about irrigation scheduling, disease monitoring and prediction and determining spray programs.

It will also be used for research and helping growers respond to seasonal climate and weather events and by Emergency Services to assess fire danger in remote areas and help authorities to be proactive in protecting local communities, farms and homes.

Data from the weather stations will be uploaded every 10 minutes to the DAFWA website where growers and other users can log on to get localised measurements.

The company has worked closely with DAFWA to ensure utilisation of their Magpie data interpretation program and interface programs already existing within the Department to ensure the most streamlined and cost effective result.

MEA Founder and Engineering Director, Mr Andrew Skinner said South Australia had led the way in localised environmental monitoring and other states are learning from our experience.

“Since we developed our first large scale weather monitoring station in the South Australian Riverland we have been commissioned to build three further networks in South Australia, three in Victoria and now the successful supply tender in Western Australia.

“Governments, industry bodies and growers recognise that modern farming requires technology and gut feel and instinct are no longer enough on their own to make smart on-farm decisions.

“Environmental monitoring technology is increasingly becoming an essential tool and as valuable as the tractor or harvester. Growers are likely to log on daily if not two or three times a day to get localised data.

“Farming like all other industries is operating in the digital age and we’re likely to see even more web-based technology used by small and large farms alike.”

The Weather Station Monitoring Network works by collecting data from the 40 Weather Stations and feeding the data at 10 minute intervals onto DAFWA’s website via the Next 3G mobile network.

The network also has future capacity for transmission via the Next 4G when it becomes operational.

It is being installed over a larger distance than any of MEA’s previous networks and their installer will cover over 7000 kilometres in order to put the weather stations in place.

The network is expected to be fully installed in mid-July.

Funded through the Western Australian State government’s Royalties for Regions program, the network will support growers who are under pressure from increasingly dry conditions over the last ten years.

These conditions have had a major impact on the economic viability of farms, particularly in agricultural areas across the south west of Western Australia.

The challenges facing Australian growers has opened up new opportunities for MEA including increased demand for its products and services.

For more information, visit www.mea.com.au

MEDIA CONTACT:
Simon Hatcher
simon@hughespr.com.au