Mansfield’s clouds have a silver lining

Tony Tehan is a semi-retired cattle farmer, who approached Mansfield Shire Council before the COVID-19 pandemic about the lack of a Bureau of Meteorology-run weather station.

“The problem was that we were relying on Eildon weather, which is about 30 kilometres away, or Wangaratta, about 50 kilometres away,” he said.

For comparison, Shepparton’s three closest stations — Shepparton Airport, Kyabram and Tatura — are all within 30km.

Mr Tehan said it was especially important for the agricultural sector, which relies heavily on the forecast to make decisions.

“We’ve had a recent drought and you certainly realise how important the weather is and it’s one thing we’ve got no control of, so to get accurate forecasts is vital,” he said.

“If it’s raining, we can’t spray, you can’t sow crops, you can’t harvest crops, you can’t shear sheep, you can’t mark lambs, you can’t mark calves.

“There’s just so much of the farming enterprise that depends on the weather.”

So, when Mansfield Shire Council was planning its budget for 2023-24, Mr Tehan’s request received $5000, unopposed.

The project lead contacted BOM to gauge their interest.

“BOM came back and said, look, we don’t really need a weather station in Mansfield, we’ve got enough data for you,” Mayor Steve Rabie said.

“We didn’t agree with that.

“We couldn’t change their mind, so part of the process was finding which station we would actually go with.

“The officer reached out to Jane Bunn’s Weather, and they said they were very keen to have our station incorporated amongst the other stations that they run, around the country and they helped us actually choose what type of technology that we’d need.”

The weather station has been up and running since July 1 and VFF Mansfield branch president Mark Ritchie said it was a pure positive.

“To get a weather station that’s specific for Mansfield is a real bonus, in terms of it provides a level of accuracy we didn’t have before,” Mr Ritchie said.

“As farmers we’re going to get much more accurate information, which is clearly a positive.”

Mr Tehan commended the council on acting on his request.

“It’s finally come to fruition, which I think is great news and I’d like to congratulate the shire on their persistence,” he said.

The community feedback has been huge, Cr Rabie said, both with the station itself and with Jane’s Weather.

“A lot of people are very happy,” he said.

“The weather station has been very well received by the Mansfield residents, and ... we were very lucky that Jane’s Weather were extremely interested and happy to partner with us on this and on the station.”

Jane Bunn told Country News she created Jane’s Weather for farmers.

“Jane’s Weather is the app that we’ve created to help farmers literally get the most out of the weather and plan what we’re going to do by having the best weather data coming in, having it hyper-localised to your particular spot,” she said.

Questions for BOM

Country News reached out to BOM, to ask why there hasn’t been a weather station in Mansfield and if there is a possibility of the community-funded weather station being integrated into its website.

“The Bureau of Meteorology operates and maintains around 650 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS),” a BOM spokesperson said.

“While AWS are an important part of the bureau's observations network, and the bureau understands the value the community places on them, they are one part of a composite observing network.

“Generally, the bureau cannot integrate third-party owned and maintained AWS into its public data feeds.

“All AWS that contribute data to bureau systems must meet the bureau's unique operational and data requirements.”

In selecting a location for an AWS in its observing network, the BOM spokesperson said they considers a range of factors, such as: