The quiet peaceful still of a Tuesday morning in the Melbourne CBD is set to be shattered tomorrow by the piercing shriek of emergency sirens, but it’s all good. Really, it’s fine. Remain calm, everything is fine.
A series of tests are gonna be held tomorrow, exploring the capabilities of Melbourne’s new system of emergency warning sirens.
65 CBD locations have been fitted with the alert speakers, and each one of them will be tested throughout tomorrow morning. This represents the first stage of what will ultimately wind up being 190 installed speakers across 95 CBD locations.
The sirens will be accompanied by clearly spoken disclaimers that they are, in fact, test broadcasts and not the real deal, so if you panic you’re gonna wind up looking like a real goose, I tell you.
Each test will run for around 5 minutes each, with the testing cycle to be conducted around the CBD until approximately 11:30am.
The speakers were installed around the city as part of on-going security beef-ups and anti-terror measures designed to give punters in the city advance warning of any incidents that may occur.
The measures were brought in following the 2017 Bourke Street rampage, in which a car was deliberately driven into pedestrians in the Bourke Street Mall, resulting in six deaths.
In an actual emergency situation, the warning system will blare out messages directing people to either wait in place, seek shelter in a nearby building, leave a specific area, or direct them to a designated safe location.
Victoria Police will deploy officers to each location to reassure pedestrians and answer questions. Meanwhile, the PTV and TramTracker apps will send push notifications to smartphone users alerting them of the tests.
Victoria Police has assured the public there is definitely no cause for alarm at this time.
So there you bloody go, mates.
