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when will mt alexander tower be fixed

Mount Alexander’s transmission “tower” (the TV/radio site on Mount Alexander that went dark after the January 2026 fire) is already partially fixed, but a full, permanent restoration is still expected to take several more months , with the most recent community estimates pointing to around August 2026 or later for complete work.

Quick answer: when will it be fixed?

  • Temporary services : came back within days to weeks after the fire (late January 2026).
  • Partial permanent fixes :
    • Commercial TV and ABC TV/SBS were restored to the Bendigo region by 20 January 2026 using new equipment at reduced power.
* **SBS** specifically reported full restoration from the Mt Alexander site by **late April 2026** after “critical repair work”.
  • Full, permanent recovery :
    • BAI Communications said in January 2026 that permanent recovery would unfold over “several months”.
* As of **April 2026** , local forum discussions still estimated **several more months** , with people quoting **August 2026** or “over six months” from January as the likely window for full restoration.

There is no single, officially published completion date yet; the project is being described as ongoing, multi‑month work.

What actually happened?

On Friday night, 9 January 2026 , a fast-moving grass fire in Harcourt reached the top of Mount Alexander and badly damaged:

  • The power systems
  • The broadcast infrastructure
  • Emergency backup systems

for both the TV and FM radio sites on the mountain. This knocked out:

  • All free-to-air digital TV for an area covering roughly 187,500 viewers from Kyneton to Cohuna
  • Several radio frequencies , including ABC Local Radio.

Timeline so far

  • January 9–10, 2026 : Fire hits; services go down; emergency assessments and initial contractor access begin.
  • January 13, 2026 : Authorities say full restoration could take “some weeks or months”.
  • January 20, 2026 : ABC TV, SBS, and commercial TV restored in the Bendigo region via new equipment at Mt Alexander, though possibly at reduced power.
  • April 2026 : Community updates still describe the job as ongoing, with estimates of August 2026 or later for full completion.
  • Late April 2026 : SBS announces its transmission services from Mt Alexander are fully restored after critical repairs.

What does “fixed” mean in practice?

If you’re asking:

  • “When will I have TV/radio again?”
    Most viewers already have some or all services back as of early 2026, with SBS fully restored by April 2026.
  • “When will the site be completely back to normal (full power, all redundancy systems, full rebuild)?”
    That’s the longer-term project , still expected to take several months into mid-to-late 2026 , with informal estimates around August 2026.

If you live in a specific town (e.g. Bendigo, Maryborough, Harcourt), local reception can vary during the rebuild, and you may need to rescan or manually tune your TV to the temporary frequencies (for example, around 557.5 MHz for some commercial channels, as advised in earlier updates).

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.