DNRME operate and maintain a network of more than four hundred primary stream or surface water gauging sites around the state of Queensland. These sites are telemetered and as such are expected to provide 24/7 access to water monitoring data.

During extreme events the reliability of our network can be compromised due to telemetry outages. In order to address this and provide timely, reliable and accurate data the team at the Hydrographic Support Unit (HSU) have carried out several development activities. This work has been underpinned with internal modernisation and external communications network changes.

To improve rate of change measurements, HSU has undertaken a bench and field evaluation of several commercially available continuous bubblers, which are summarised in this paper.

Pivotel is shutting down the Queensland Globalstar gateway in June 2019. To avoid losing telemetry data at satellite coverage pluviograph sites, we successfully evaluated and deployed a new satellite telemetry instrument.

During Cyclone Debbie in 2017 a significant portion of DNRME monitoring network was cut off partially due to infrastructure damage within the Telstra mobile network. In light of this network failure a decision was made to challenge the market to provide a robust, turnkey redundant telemetry platform. This work has resulted in the largest monitoring network change for Queensland in fifteen years.