Storm Topples Norfolk Island Tower While Hope Channel Keeps Broadcasting

A storm brought down a television broadcast tower on Norfolk Island, an Australian external territory in the South Pacific, over the weekend of May 30-31, 2026. A Christian station run by a local church kept broadcasting from an antenna on a separate tower, and for about a week its two channels, Hope Channel and Reflect, were the island's only locally transmitted television services, according to the station.

Gary Summerscales runs the television station for his local church. Summerscales said he also looks after all television and FM radio broadcasting on the island.

The station carries two channels. One is Hope Channel, an international network that shares the gospel of Jesus on 90 channels in 120 languages, with programs including Bible study, children’s programs, and discussions of faith, health, and relationships. The other is Reflect, which combines scenic landscapes and quiet music with Bible texts and short message clips. Both continued broadcasting from the older tower that survived the storm, Summerscales said.

Norfolk Island lies about 1,600 kilometers, or 1,000 miles, northeast of Sydney. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated its population at 2,193 in June 2025. The Norfolk Island Regional Council describes an economy that depends heavily on tourism, and Summerscales said the island has about 30,000 tourist visits every year.

In a June 3 statement, the council said a television tower on Mt Pitt had fallen during severe weather over the May 30-31 weekend. FM radio services returned by June 2 while television repairs continued, according to Norfolk Online News.

Residents asked how the church station kept Hope Channel on the air

Residents who had lost access to their other channels asked how the church station was still broadcasting. “Some were surprised; I did get some push back. How come we were still on the air? Some are still watching [the channels] they have discovered,” Summerscales recalled.

The return of other channels did not end the reception problems. Temporary transmissions were weak, leaving many viewers waiting for a new UHF television system to be completed. In September, Summerscales said those difficulties continued.

A new UHF transmitter is on the way to Norfolk Island

An anonymous donation the station received about 10 years ago is paying for the upgrade, Summerscales said. A new 50-watt digital transmitter for the UHF band, still in transit, is intended to provide coverage across the whole island, which measures roughly 8 kilometers by 5, or 5 miles by 3, he explained. The transmitter will send the church station’s signal through a shared antenna mounted on an 18-meter tower, about 59 feet high, alongside signals from four other new transmitters.

Once the system is ready, viewers will need to manually search for the updated channels. Summerscales said coordinating that change with the island’s other broadcasts would let households find the church station’s programs in the same search.

Visitors already discover the station’s programs as they look through the available channels, Summerscales said. Under the new arrangement, Hope Channel programming will be on a different channel number, changing where viewers find it as they browse.

“I will put new program numbers so viewers will have to step through to see their favorites, and they might see something that catches their eye,” he said.

Summerscales said the station has come through storms before. “We have had storms damage equipment, but we are still ‘on air,’” he said.