The small town of Yaraka, 165km south west of Blackall, received a Christmas present from Telstra yesterday, when federal Maranoa MP David Littleproud announced he’d been advised construction of their mobile phone tower had been brought forward.
The community of 24 was announced 18 months ago as a successful recipient of a tower under round one of the joint federal-state mobile black spot program, but since then has been in a frustrating limbo of no progress.
When Mr Littleproud enquired a couple of months ago, he was told Telstra had a technical issue to work through, meaning there would be no tower until 2018.
“I didn’t accept that. The work had to be expedited,” he said, adding that technicians were not far away, at Birdsville and Bedourie, and were ahead of schedule on the installation of fibre optic cable to Barcoo and Diamantina shires.
“They today advised me the construction of the mobile phone tower will be brought forward from sometime in 2018 to the first half of next year,” he said. “Thank you Telstra.”
He said Telstra were also working on trying to bring forward Jackson and Durong towers, two others that had been promised in round one of the Mobile Phone Blackspot Program.
In June 2015, then-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull visited the town and heard of the frustration of families trying to educate their children through distance education by other means, and how important a mobile phone alternative would be for them.
So far as the owners of the Yaraka Hotel were concerned, mobile coverage would make life easier and safer.
"Everybody has a phone these days; it's much easier to reach people that way than trying to get through with UHF radio," Chris Gimblett said.
"We get a lot of 'grey nomad' tourists who aren't familiar with the roads, and we tell them to ring before they leave so we can look for them if they don't arrive within a certain time.
"With a mobile service we won't have to be so concerned for people's welfare."