ON FARM NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY z Riding the digital wave “Our data was restricted to 50GB of peak time download a month – our son could use that up in one school holiday afternoon of gaming – we had frequent drop-outs and speed tests showed our download speeds were much slower than advertised.” Origo.farm’s first task was to connect the homestead to fast NBN broadband. They did this by installing a secondary node at a friend’s house in Kalbarri 12 kilometres away, then transmitting the signal to a receiving tower on top of a hill at the station, down to towers at water tanks, and on to the homestead. “The homestead is in a big hollow – only 8m above sea Installing one of the antennaes for the 900MHz meshing radio system, which transmits data around the farm.level – so we had to send the signal around the hills,” ‘Murchison House Station’ who are accommodated on remote location, whole-farmCalum said. hasa rich history as one the property between April connectivity solution that can“We now have fast broadband ofthe oldest pastoral and October each year. Whatbe replicated across other to the homestead and stationsin WA, but its it is not, is ‘digital friendly’.remote properties. connectivity around what we owners have their sights Calum and Belinda Carruth Getting connected call the ‘home paddocks’ or set firmly on the future. run beef cattle and rangeland ‘the farm’. Calum contacted Annie Brox Murchison House Station goats on the property, fromOrigo.farm after reading“This givesus unlimited data covers 141,600ha, including650km north of Perth. aboutand the speeds are the samethe company installing the ancient limestone fullople on NBN fixedasbroadbandconnectivity pe Since September 2017, the a line services in Kalbarri. The Toolonga escarpment, a couple has been working acrossa 6,500h farm at 150-million-year-old former Mingenew, 200km to the south.NBN isn’t great – my mate in with ag-tech provider Cambodia has five times our coral reef that rises 180mOrigo.farm to ensure their “At the time we had no download speeds – but we above sea level and forms historic station can take part connectivityover most ofcan now run the station as if the ‘backbone’ of the station.in agriculture’s digital future.the station,” Calum said.we are living in Kalbarri. There’s also 60km of wild IndianOceanshoreline “In March this year, the MLA There were acouple of high“The rest of the station is over andmore than 30km of Donor Company (MDC), inspots where you could pick the range, which is about MurchisonRiver floodplainscooperation with Origo.farm,up a mobile phone signal, but150m high, so we’ll have to . began supporting the projectnot many. get over that to send signal The terrain is rugged, through matching Federal out the back.” spectacular and varied.I Government R&D funding. “Atthe house wehad a t’s a drawcard for both satellite NBN subscription, tourists and palaeontologists,The project will develop abut the servicewas atrocious. 22