Marine Safety Victoria has launched new cameras around the State, allowing more boaters to check conditions at their local ramp from the comfort of their home.
Director of Maritime Safety Victoria, Cameron Toy said the ramp and car park cameras, which fed images to the Boating Vic app, were already live in six locations, with 19 more to be delivered this year.
“Smart technology allows the cameras to count the number of vessel launches and retrievals per hour, prompting a status of ‘quiet’ or ‘busy’ on Boating Vic,” Mr Toy said.
“This is displayed alongside localised hourly weather forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology,” he said.
Mr Toy said boaters could use the information to make safer decisions on where and when to head out.
“We know boaters can become frustrated if there are long wait times at a boat ramp and we hope to ease some of that congestion,” he said.
“We see situations where the weather starts to turn, but people decide to head out anyway because they have already loaded up the boat, driven down to the ramp and waited around.”
He said the next round of cameras set to be switched on would be at Stony Point; Corinella (Western Port); St Leonards; Point Richards (Port Phillip Bay); Queenscliff; and Torquay.
Mr Toy said new cameras would also be placed at Hastings; Indented Head; Mornington; Safety Beach; Sorrento; Mordialloc; Newport (Warmies); Half Moon Bay; Brighton; Werribee South; Kananook Creek; Olivers Hill; and Inverloch Light.
