Sapphire emergency warning sirens annual testing Wednesday 9 June 2021
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Posted on June 1, 2021
Central Highlands Regional Council will be testing its emergency warning sirens at Sapphire and Graves Hill on Wednesday 9 June 2021 between 11.00 am and 12.00 pm.
People in the vicinity will hear the sirens being activated ONE time only in the scheduled test period and should not be alarmed as it is a TEST only. The test will include an emergency warning signal tone followed by the following voice message:
“THIS IS ONLY A TEST, I REPEAT – THIS IS ONLY A TEST, ATTENTION ATTENTION THIS IS ONLY A TEST, I REPEAT – THIS IS ONLY A TEST”
The tone and message announcement will last up to two minutes. Within a three-kilometre radius, the sirens’ volume ranges from 70 to 110 decibels. As a comparison, a vacuum cleaner is 70 decibels and a car horn from one metre away is about 110 decibels.
Council will be testing the sirens around this time annually.
In 2020, council installed two emergency warning sirens to communicate early flood or bushfire warnings to the local community and visitors in the Sapphire and Graves Hill area.
In the future, if sirens are activated outside of testing, people are urged to act immediately and evacuate as quickly as possible to a safe place. People are also urged to visit council’s Emergency Management Dashboard for current information and follow advice from emergency services personnel.