A DISTRICT farming area is finally about to become connected to the national mobile telephone network.
Farmers and visitors in the Lake Meran and Meering West areas have long campaigned for an end to isolation, citing business, social and safety reasons for the urgency of the situation.
Farmers have had to resort to climbing up silo ladders and even children’s playground slides to gain an intermittent signal.
The area was not selected in a previous funding round, but the Federal Government has now announced funding for the farming district, located 22 kilometres south-west of Kerang.News that a mobile phone tower would be built at Lake Meran has been welcomed by the farming community, highlighted by the current grain harvest, with farmers battling extremely limited phone coverage in the midst of co-ordinating harvest logistics.
Round two of the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program will deliver 266 new or upgraded mobile base stations across the country.
Federal funding will total $213 million, while Telstra is contributing $63.7 million and Optus $36.4 million.
Optus was the successful applicant to build a tower at Lake Meran, with Nullawil also among the company’s 16 new sites across the State.
Federal Member for Mallee, Andrew Broad said improved mobile coverage would be a boon for business, tourism, education and families.
“It was not so long ago that Emily English, a school girl from Lake Meran, wrote to me about the problems she was having with completing her homework because of the poor internet she had at home,” he said.
“She pointed out that she was at a disadvantage because all the ‘town kids’ who had access to reliable internet connections, were able to do more homework study than she could.
“Emily, in many ways, is the face of the mobile black spot issue across regional Australia. School children must be able to access the resources they need to learn …”
Mr Broad said community lobbying helped get the new tower across the line.
“Many people came together to nominate their regions for the Black Spot program and today, they should be very proud of their achievements because it’s through their advocacy that they are having their mobile phone black spots addressed,” he said.
Meering West farmer and fire brigade secretary, Helen Rothacker was among those who lodged a submission – initially for round one of the funding.
“We were unsuccessful from round one so it’s great news to hear we’ve been included in round two,” Mrs Rothacker said.
“There are so many dangers with people not being able to use their phones; for example there was one incident where a header caught fire in the area and the driver had no mobile phone coverage so he had to leave the scene and drive to the nearest fire station to raise the alarm.”
Mrs Rothacker said harvest activities like co-ordinating vehicles and monitoring grain prices necessitated mobile phone coverage.
“It’s very frustrating trying to communicate at harvest when your phone won’t work,” she said.
Mrs Rothacker said coverage was also needed to cater for the tourist boom at Lake Meran.
“There have been many campers who have expressed their intention to return to this wonderful holiday spot, but were concerned their phones would not work and the safety issue if there was an accident, fire or health issue,” she said.
