Weather radar idle for almost two years
A world class weather radar, built at Redbank Plains, to research extreme events, and even predict rainfall measurements has been dismantled, and is sitting idle.
The Federal Government and Weather Bureau say it's undergoing repairs, but Seven News can reveal it has been out of action for almost two years.
The $2.5 million research radar was hailed as one of the most sophisticated in the world when it opened with great fanfare in 2007.
Now it has no dome and the dish sits on the ground amongst other loose parts.
"This is another example of waste and mismanagement and bungling with real human consequences," Federal Shadow Minister for Climate Action Greg Hunt says.
It's one of only two in Australia - helping the Centre for Australian Climate and Weather Research look into clouds, predict rainfall, detect hail, research severe storms and big rain events - but the public didn't know it wasn't working.
"Now we've got the Doppler denial, where the government isn't telling the truth," Mr Hunt says.
"They need to explain why they weren't up front with the public on a critical service."
Seven News tried, for two days, to secure an interview with the Weather Bureau without success. In an organisation of 1780 people, they couldn't find anyone to talk on camera.
However, they did confirm in an email, the radar "has not been sidelined and is still a very important instrument for our research on extreme events."
The Bureau confirmed the radar broke down two years ago, was fixed, then had a major bearing failure two months later.
It wasn't working during the 2011 floods - they say it wasn't equipped to predict them anyway.
It is a sorry site now, but the Weather Bureau and the Federal Government have promised repairs are being carried out and it could be operating again by the end of November.
