Connectivity woes

Clare resident Claire Butler says remote New South Wales deserved equitable access to mobile data as metropolitan counterparts for “safety, educational and agribusiness”. 

“We live in a 15,000 square kilometre mobile blackspot, which is a bigger area than Sydney and the Blue Mountains combined,” Ms Butler told The Guardian. 

“Our daughter Larah, who is in grade five at Clare Public School, will have to go on boarding school at Ballarat in Year 7, so she needs to keep up with technology which is very hard at the moment as the school is also a satellite school.” 

Ms Butler said the town missed out on round two of the Federal Government Mobile Black Spot Program, but hoped, with strong support from Farrer MP Sussan Ley, it would be successful in the next round. 

“It’s a waiting game and constant disappointment,” she said. 

To read more of this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (March 24).