HMAS Canberra accidentally blocks wireless internet and radio services in New Zealand
By
Andrew Thorpe
, ABC
At 230 metres long, HMAS Canberra is the Royal Australian Navy's largest vessel.
Photo:
AFP
The Department of Defence has acknowledged that
HMAS Canberra
, the Royal Australian Navy's largest warship, accidentally took out a number of wireless internet and radio services across New Zealand earlier this week during a visit intended to celebrate the sister city relationship between Canberra and Wellington.
The incident occurred early on Wednesday morning, as the 230-metre navy flagship made its way through the Cook Strait en route to New Zealand's capital, where the ship's crew is set to be welcomed with a parade and concert on Saturday.
According to local internet service providers (ISPs),
HMAS Canberra'
s navigation radar began interfering with 5GHz wireless access points - devices that bridge wired and wireless networks - in regions on both New Zealand's North and South Islands at around 2am.
Wireless internet and radio outages caused by HMAS Canberra.
Photo:
ABC News
The radar interference triggered in-built switches in the devices that caused them to go offline, a safety precaution intended to prevent wireless signals from interfering with radar systems in New Zealand's airspace.
Stuff reported that the outages were first raised with Radio Spectrum Management, an agency within the government's business ministry.
The agency notified the New Zealand Defence Force, which notified the Australian Defence Force.
"On becoming aware,
HMAS Canberra
changed frequencies rectifying the interference," a spokesperson for Australia's Department of Defence said.
"There are no ongoing disruptions."
The outages affected wireless internet and radio services in Taranaki and Marlborough regions, the spokesperson added.
Matthew Harrison, managing director of New Zealand-based ISP Primo, said he had never seen anything like the incident before.
"This wasn't just a blip. It was full-scale, military-grade radar triggering built-in safety protocols … and it rolled across our network in sync with the ship's movement," he wrote on LinkedIn.
"It's not every day a warship takes your gear offline!"
Harrison said the incident underlined the fragility of New Zealand's radio spectrum environment, with rural fixed wireless services having to share a frequency band with radar systems.
-ABC
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
7 hours ago
- RNZ News
Call for govt action to prevent repeat of warship internet outages
Photo: Unsplash / RNZ Internet experts say the government must do more to avoid internet outages, after a warship knocked out services to Taranaki and Marlborough. Interference from an Australian warship's navigation radar caused internet and radio services to fail in those regions on Wednesday. The 230-metre HMAS Canberra was sailing through Cook Strait when its systems disrupted 5 GHz wireless access points. The HMAS Canberra which has been visiting New Zealand this week. Photo: AFP The chief executive of the Telecommunications Users Association, Craig Young, said it showed the vulnerability in the country's network. "It was fixed quite quickly once they figured out what was going on," he said. "But it does show that we do have a weakness in the current way that radio spectrum, this is what's used for broadband and regional New Zealand, can be overridden by a stronger signal in an area where this frequency can be used by other users." Young said that in New Zealand, like anywhere in the world, radio frequencies were used for delivering all sorts of services, including mobile and broadband. "And what happened was, in this case, a radio signal that was stronger than the one that was being used to provide broadband was interrupting the broadband," Young said. "It was the ship with the radar and they were using the same frequency, unaware that in New Zealand that frequency was used for delivering broadband to users." He said rural and regional areas were particularly vulnerable and actions from the government were needed to avoid disruptions from happening in future. "We need a better way to allocate certain parts of the spectrum to people like these broadband providers so they don't get interrupted." Sam James, a technical manager at TPNET, which provides broadband services across the Tasman and Marlborough areas, said his services were affected on Wednesday. "This kind of event is rare, and to be fair, no one really did anything wrong. The equipment behaved exactly as it's designed to - it's just that a visiting warship doesn't normally show up in the spectrum plan," he said. "Once the source was identified, we understand the ship adjusted frequencies to reduce disruption, and things settled down pretty quickly. "That said, the incident does highlight how fragile rural networks can be when built entirely on a shared or congested spectrum." James said Australia and the US were opening up new spectrum bands like 3 GHz and 6 GHz to give regional providers more room to build high-capacity, resilient links. "But here in New Zealand, those same bands remain mostly off-limits or underutilised - even though the gear is available and the need is growing." A serious conversation was needed about "spectrum access, infrastructure resilience, and making sure critical services aren't just one radar sweep away from a dropout", James said. Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith told RNZ he would be "discussing the matter with officials". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Fire on historic ship The Tui most likely caused by electrical fault
Historic ship The Tui was found on fire on 4 June 2025. Photo: RNZ / Peter De Graaf The fire that destroyed a historic ship in the Bay of Islands was most likely caused by an electrical fault, not by arson, a fire investigator says. The Tui, a century-old sugar barge converted into a replica sailing ship by the late underwater explorer Kelly Tarlton, was severely damaged by fire early on Wednesday morning. Police initially treated the blaze as suspicious and, given how little remained, Northland fire investigator Craig Bain was not hopeful of being able to establish the cause. Luck was, however, on his side. "As the digger was bringing bits and pieces out, we were looking for the likes of switchboards and hard drives for the security system, and anything that might show an origin point," Bain said. "Just by pure luck, once everything had been removed, I went into what was left and looked over the side - and lying in the sand were the burnt-out remnants of the mains switchboard. Digging through that a bit further I found what was left of the mains cable that feeds the switchboard, and that had significant arcing and a fair bit of melting on it as well, indicating significant heat." That led the investigation team to conclude an electrical fault was the most likely cause of the fire. The find was even more unexpected given how quickly they had to work to beat the incoming tide. Bain said the switchboard was still warm to the touch when found, and appeared to have fallen out of the boat early in the fire. Power was live to the switchboard due to the vessel's pending restoration, and it was possible moisture had entered it during the wild weather lashing the Bay of Islands that night. Bain said the finding that the fire was most likely electrical rather than suspicious could provide some comfort to the owners, as well as to the Tarlton family. "I think it's quite a benefit to the folks starting out on this project to restore the boat that there doesn't appear to be anything malicious about the fire, that we know of." Kelly Tarlton created the Tui in the 1970s to display his collection of treasures salvaged from shipwrecks around New Zealand. Later it housed a series of restaurants and cafes but for the past decade it had been empty and increasingly derelict. It was bought last year by researchers Cat Peters and Thibaud Guerin, who planned to turn it into a centre for free community marine education. In April this year their TriOceans Education Trust received a grant from Foundation North to restore the ship. Work had just started when the fire broke out. Parts of the ship not destroyed by the blaze had to be demolished that morning, both to allow firefighters to fully extinguish the flames between its two hulls and to ensure debris did not enter the Bay of Islands on the high tide at 2.30pm. The site was blessed before dawn on Saturday in a moving ceremony led by the chairman of neighbouring Te Tii Marae, Ngāti Kawa Taituha. Fiona Tarlton took part, representing the family, and said she planned to gift the marae a framed photo of the Tui and her late father. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- RNZ News
Ōtara youth challenged to design new town centre playground
A new playground is coming to Ōtara, a project led by local rangatahi. Photo: Supplied / Auckland Council Ōtara's only town centre playground is getting a fresh start with local youth leading the charge. Auckland Council removed the playground and seating area in January in a bid to deter antisocial behaviour and public drinking outside the Ōtara TAB, leaving some of the community disheartened . It followed a local board decision in November 2024 to relocate the town centre playground. In a rare show of youth-led democracy, rangatahi are not only guiding the design but asking the community to help decide its location before consultation closes on 20 June. A drop-in session was being held at Ōtara Music Arts Centre (OMAC on Friday night. Ōtara Papatoeote local board chair Apulu Reece Autagavaia said they wanted to empower young people to decide on things that they will use. "Nobody knows what's best for youth than the youth themselves," he said. "This is a playground they decided over, and hopefully they'll take care of it and help find solutions if any issues come up." Community youth groups like TOPs (The Ōtara-Papatoetoe Squad), PACT, Ōtara Youth Hub, TYLA Youth Development Trust, and Adullam Boys are helping guide the public consultation. Apulu said the consultation was also a chance to think more broadly about safety and support in the area. "Ōtara Town Centre is for everyone, and we want it to be safe for everyone too. For those affected by antisocial behaviour, how can we activate the space in a positive and safe way? And how can we involve social services to help address the drinking issues our people are facing?" Manukau ward councillor Lotu Fuli said different groups had asked to remove the playground due to their children being exposed to antisocial behaviour. The original playground was moved from the Bairds Road Reserve as an answer to the community's concerns. There are four proposed locations for the new playground: Photo: Supplied / Auckland Council While the rangatahi are leading the project and design, Fuli said there would be constraints due to budgets. The final proposal is expected to go to the local board for approval in October, with building scheduled to start between April and June 2026. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
