Sensor Relay Pole RP2 installed at One Tree Island as part of the Facility for the Automated Intelligent Monitoring of Marine Systems - FAIMMS

A 6m steel pole has been installed within a small bommie within Second Lagoon of One Tree Island as part of the sensor network infrastructure at One Tree Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef off Gladstone, Australia.

The sensor-relay pole provides a platform for the installation of sensors to measure and monitor water conditions within the lagoon of One Tree Island. The pole has real time communications using 900MHz spread spectrum radio back to a base station on One Tree Island.

The pole is initially configured with a single thermistor string with six thermistors that is located down the outer wall of the bommie into the second lagoon and so provides a temperature profile of the second lagoon of One Tree Island. The data is collected every 10 minutes and relayed via the base station to the Data Centre at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

The system uses a Campbell Scientific logger into which the sensors are connected. The equipment is serviced every six months with plans to install additional instruments such as pressure and salinity. The pole is available for mounting of additional third part instruments and so forms an infrastructure to support future observational work at the Island.