Australia Cell Phone: Western TAS is insulated

Australia Cell Phone: Western TAS is insulated

Tasmania´s West Coast pleas for improved telephone service
By: Oliver Koester
January 30, 2006
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ALTHOUGH Tasmania´s West Coast is cut off from telephone services pleas adressed to Telstra and Hydro Tasmania to improve telephone services are not beeing heared, Mayor Darryl Gerrity says.

Both the council and the residents at the remote communities of Granville Harbour and Trial Harbour had asked Hydro Tasmania and Telstra to upgrade sub-standard services on safety grounds, Mr Gerrity explains. "There are no mobile telephone services in these areas and although the two towns each have a public telephone, they are provided by the West Coast Council because of Telstra's disinterest," he said.

"We accept that the public telephones in these two towns are not profitable services, but they are vital services for both residents and the many tourists and recreational users who visit the towns." Mayor Gerrity said that the council did not only try to lobby Telstra but had also been trying to get Hydro Tasmania to help tp solve the issue. "The solution could be as simple as Hydro Tasmania installing aerials at its wind farms at Trial Harbour, Woolnorth and King Island," Cr Gerrity said. "If they would do that we could put up relay stations which would provide the whole West Coast with good communications.

"However, Hydro Tasmania maintains that communication services are not their core business and will not assist." Cr Gerrity said the West Coast Council also had been unable to gain a commitment from Telstra to improve services. "Higher aerials are all that is required and they could be installed for the cost of an executive lunch," he said.

Lack of phone services was a big issue for the isolated community, said Trial Harbour Progress Association president Rodney Evans. "We have 42 homes here and only seven of them can have telephones because that is the maximum capacity of the current system. One of our permanent residents, a mine manager, cannot get access to a telephone line."

Mr Evans said the lack of mobile phone coverage was a big safety concern. "It is quite common for people to get bogged and to have to walk hours back to town to get help. "Access to mobile telephone services would also improve sea safety because people could get assistance with just a phone call."

The claims to improve accessibility are backed up by a recent accident at Trial Harbour, Mr Evans said. "A four-wheel drive went off a cliff and a number of teenagers were trapped inside the car, which was wedged between rocks on the beach below while the tide was coming in. If there had been mobile access they could have immediately phoned for help. Because they couldn't, someone had to run back to town to raise the alarm."

Hydro Tasmania and Telstra defend themselves against these accusation. Hydro Tasmania spokeswoman Helen Brain said she couldn't find any formal approach from Cr Gerrity, but he was welcome to make one. "However, we aren't in the elecommunications business, we are a power generator and that is our major concern. "It is a Telstra role to provide those services to the community," Ms Brain said.

Telstra's Northern Tasmania general manager Noel Hunt said there were no plans to extend mobile coverage to Trial Harbour. "Through the Networking the Nation program we have extended mobile telephone coverage to 65 per cent of Tasmania by installing 30 new base stations," he said. "Granville Harbour does have coverage but Trial Harbour doesn't because it sits underneath the Zeehan and Mt Read transmitters." However, Mr Hunt said there was plenty of capacity for fixed land lines in Trial Harbour. "If anyone at Trial Harbour wants a fixed land line they can have one straight away at standard installation prices."


Resource: Sunday Tasmanian - January 22, 2006