Biodiversity & Land Management
Our greatest impact on biodiversity and land can occur during the installation and maintenance of network facilities such as fibre-optic cables, pits, manholes, mobile base stations, and radio and satellite dishes.
This is why our Land and Environment (L&E) and Mobile Deployment & Support Services (MDSS) teams undertake site assessments before work starts and take action to minimise impacts.
They focus on full compliance with the Telecommunications Act 1997, the Telecommunications Code of Practice 1997 and the Telecommunications (Low-impact Facilities) Determination 1997. These acts ensure Optus carries out a number of actions during network deployment and operations, which include:
- Minimising damage to fauna habitat and vegetation as possible
- Giving notice to interested parties such as owners and occupiers
- Drawing agreements between those involved
- Implementing best practice
- Noise management
- Compliance with relevant industry standards and codes
- Implementing procedures for dealing with objections
- Assessment of visual impact
Where an area is determined to be’of environmental significance’ under federal or state legislation and the installation cannot be avoided, Optus undertakes detailed environmental assessments and relevant planning consents before installation. This allows the work and ongoing maintenance to be performed in a way that minimises disturbance.
