NBN Planning Report_Cooran

8       OTHER           ENVIRONMENTAL
        CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
8.1      Visual Amenity
NBN Co has endeavoured to strike a balance between providing services and minimising the
visual impact on the community and local environment. Telecommunication facilities need
to be located in or near the area for which they are designated to provide or improve
coverage. This site was selected based on consideration to town planning matters, coverage
objectives, and the ability to mitigate impacts on the area’s visual amenity.

It is recognised that the installation of fixed wireless facilities may have a visual effect. This
visual effect can be attributed to two unavoidable characteristics of fixed wireless facilities:
     • They are structures which generally protrude above other structures and vegetation;
         and
     • They need to be located at suitable heights in order to operate effectively.

These characteristics mean that by necessity, fixed wireless facilities may be and often are
visible in urban and rural landscapes.

A number of measures have been incorporated into the design of the facility at Schreibers
Road, Cooran to address the visual effect of the facility, including:
   • The use of a monopole design rather than a lattice tower due to its slimline form
       and reduced bulk;
   • The monopole has been designed to the minimum height necessary to achieve the
       required radio frequency coverage to the Cooran community, as well as absolute
       line of sight for transmission of the customer’s data into the NBN Network and Fibre
       Backbone (where the parabolic dish is located at 37 m which is the minimum height
       required to see the adjoining facility at Kybong) ;
   • The facility has been sited near to mature vegetation which will reduce the visual
       obtrusiveness of the facility when viewed from outside of the property boundaries;
   • The location provides an appropriate buffer, by both the physical separation
       distances afforded by large rural allotments and vegetation screening the facility,
       from residential land uses and the road network in Cooran;
   • The proposed facility will be silhouetted by the existing vegetated backdrop which
       will further reduce its visual impact on the local landscape when viewed from
       dwellings south of the proposed facility
   • The proposal will not obstruct any significant views in the locality as it is located on
       the periphery of the township and set back from nearby residential dwellings and
       Schreibers Road; and
   • The proposed facility will be set back approximately 600 m from Schreibers Road
       and 1.4 km from the Bruce Highway, a State-controlled road to minimise visual
       obtrusiveness.

Figure 8.1 illustrates an aerial view of the subject property and Figure 8.2 shows the
approximate location of the NBN compound on the premises.



NBN-4BBZ-4GYM-5132-Schreibers                                                        Page 42