THE tension in the Operations Room goes up a notch as three loud chimes ring out at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. “It’s all hands-on deck,” explains Samantha Siddins, Senior Search and Rescue Officer. The alarm signals an incoming distress message from a personal locator beacon. Inside Australia’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, six search and rescue staff are immediately focused on the information that has bounced from beacon to satellite to receiving dish, before appearing on multiple computer screens across the room. In an ordinary office building in Canberra, this small group of professionals receive every distress notification from beacons triggered in their vast search and rescue zone.
Australia’s search and rescue zone covers one tenth of the earth’s surface. At 52.8 million square kilometres, it not only covers the Australian continent,
