Saturday, Mar 04, 2023 at 17:14
Macca & Allan, I do appreciate that Telstra
services at locations like yours can be poor & thus frustrating. I may be wrong, but imagine that when you refer to 'bars' they are bars of 4G. 1 or 2 isn't great in this day & age but it is head & shoulders above the the 3 G here, when it is available. The only internet here is via satellite NBN, which drops out with rain. I just got on a couple of minutes ago, haven't had any 'net since yesterday, & it's just started raining again, so I'm rushing to try to post this before we lose it again. The point though is we are an exception, most who call
Lockhart home cannot afford NBN, so an entire community without comms when the 3 G goes down. What is taken for granted in all sorts of ways in most of Australia is absent here. We have one
shop, & a health clinic run by a few nurses Mon-to Fri. There are no local
services like there are down south. 17 kms from
Apollo Bay is more easily driveable than 12 hours to
Cairns, not that that is possible to drive out during the wet season. The Sunshine Coast would have hospitals, GP surgeries, Vets, Ambulances, SES, etc etc. Here there is nothing available for emergencies except for the phone & folk are as a result far more dependent upon being able to communicate with
services at a distance. Imagine if on the Sunshine Coast a cyclone hit. It would prompt the full range of emergency
services to go into action, radio broadcasts would be made with info etc etc. Here it could be 3 days or longer before anyone outside even knew a cyclone had hit, & then more delays to work out what was needed & to then send help. I suggest that the need for reliable comms up here is far greater, but what is supplied is far less. For most who live here, they are a stoic bunch who's expectations are far less than those of most Australians, & living here is not a lifestyle choice, it is their only choice. A high proportion of residents have never been anywhere else ...ever. 10 years trying to get the basic service which other Cape communities have!
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