Boaters will be able to check the conditions at the Werribee South boat ramp from the comfort of their own homes, under a plan to install cameras at the site.
Maritime Safety Victoria is planning to install ramp and carpark cameras, which provide live images to a Boating Vic app every five minutes, at 19 locations across the state this year including Werribee South, Newport (Warmies), St Leonards, Queenscliff and Torquay.
Cameras have already been installed at Altona, Rye, Geelong Limeburners Point, Clifton Springs, St Helens and Patterson River.
Smart technology allows the cameras to count the number of vessel launches and retrievals at each ramp per hour, prompting a status of ‘quiet’ or ‘busy’to be listed on the Boating Vic app.
This is displayed alongside localised hourly weather forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Maritime Safety Victoria director Cameron Toy said boaters could use this information to make safer decisions about where and when to head out onto the water.
“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.”
Camera images can be viewed by downloading the Boating Vic app or at boating.vic.gov.au.
