Australia makes progress on Border outposts and Radios project

Radio communications team leader Major Josh Fordham said, “Once completed, this project will deliver radio communications to every province in Solomon Islands and enable a more coordinated response in a natural disaster or security incident.”

“We were fortunate to travel to different parts of the country and it was made very clear to us how dispersed the population is and how important this radio network will be for the people of Solomon Islands,” Major Fordham said.

In October 2019 and March 2022 Australia and Solomon Islands’ Prime Ministers agreed to build the Western and Eastern Border Outposts respectively.

Following COVID-19 delays, the infrastructure team travelled to the Western Border Outpost site at Lofung South. Australia is expediting this project and early-works are expected to begin later this year. Following this they travelled to Temotu, visiting Lata before travelling to Vanikoro. The team visited six potential sites for the Eastern Border Outpost, assessing them for technical suitability.

Infrastructure team leader Major Chris Zdjelar said, “We looked at a range of sites on Vanikoro, including those that had been shortlisted by the Solomon Islands Government in 2021.”

“To assist our technical assessments we talked with communities to better understand the environments we were looking at and the feasibility of building at each site, taking into account things like nearby logistics, amenities and access to site” Major Zdjelar said.

Both teams were accompanied by Solomon Islands Government officials who facilitated positive community engagement with local stakeholders including provincial government officials, church leaders, village chiefs and tribal elders. Key members from each team will return to Honiara in mid-July to brief Solomon Islands Government officials on the progress of the projects.

-AHC Press