Article: CityCats to get military-style cameras

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

CityCats to get military-style cameras

CityCats to get military-style cameras
Tony Moore
April 21, 2009 - 1:17PM

Military style infrared cameras to spot rowers and kayakers in the water are being trialled on Brisbane's CityCats.

Two infrared cameras will being tested for the next three months, with the first to feature on Brisbane's newest CityCat, the Mahreel - the indigenous name for Spring Hill.

The Mahreel is Brisbane's 14th CityCat.

Safety has become the focus of the river leet, with plans to boost to 19 the number of CityCats operating by June 2012.

The infrared trial comes inthe wake of three serious incidents involving CityCats on the Brisbane River since 2005, two of them involving rowing skulls.

In June 16, 2008 a CityCat sliced through the hull of a Brisbane State High School rowing scull after the skipper was blinded by early morning glare from the river. The students were uninjured.

In October 2006 seven passengers were injured when the CityCat smashed into a pylon near the ferry terminal at the Regatta Hotel.

In August 2005, nine girls from St Margaret's Anglican School were thrown into the river near Newstead Park and two taken to hospital after a collision with a CityCat.

The $15,000 infrared camera which will help detect swimmers and rowers and low objects in the water and display them on a screen in the cabin.

At the launch of the Mahreel this morning, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said the incidents in the river with rowers had prompted the trial.

"Basically, it is technology which originally came from the military that allows the skipper of the craft to look ahead in conditions of low light or poor visibility," Cr Newman said.

"Hopefully it allows them to pick up rowers or kayakers on the river."

Rowing Queensland have been involved in discussions to introduce the cameras in the past nine or 10 months, Cr Newman said.

"There are also things that the rowers will implement and we will be making announcements about that in the future."

Cr Newman said he did not want the rowers to relocate.

"Everybody has a right to use the river, the point is that we need to have everybody using it in the best possible safety sense."

He said it was too early to disclose where the two new CityCat terminals would be built, but indicated they would be double-sized and able to cope with two CityCats at one time.

Several sites have been earmarked for construction, including West End, near Davies Park, Milton, Teneriffe, at Newstead River Park and at Northshore Hamilton with private sector involvement.

"We have asked the private sector to bid on a number of potential locations that we have put up," he said.

"That process is still underway so it is inappropriate for me to talk about that at the moment."