The release of an engagement report by Connecting Victoria, where residents throughout the Victoria voiced their need for better mobile and broadband connections, is another step towards better telecommunications through the Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley.
Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy Jaala Pulford released the Connecting Victoria engagement report on Tuesday 1 February, which received more than 11,000 responses through Engage Victoria and more than 110 formal submissions.
Around 300 people attended 13 roundtables held across Victoria.
Sassafras resident and writer Peter Brennan has been campaigning for better connectivity for hills communities because of major concerns of telecommunication outages during storms and bushfires.
“I was approached by a couple of businesses because they didn’t have very good mobile reception in their offices to cater to the business needs of visitors and customers,” he said.
“We’re talking about doctors and hoteliers, they were at breaking point. I was in a similar boat and the reason you have to call me on a landline is because the mobile services are so poor I just can’t take mobile calls.”
Mr Brennan contacted local members of parliament for assistance after he started collecting on the ground information about resident’s mobile coverage, which he said is the foundation of the emergency response system in the Dandenong Ranges.
“It was disastrously under resourced and just didn’t work. We had a lot of responses so we have an on ground truth which was then reported to the government by the telecommunications authorities themselves,” he said.
“Just as were getting into that, the hills got struck by the huge storms and it took three days for emergency communications to find their way from the Dandenongs to the Emergency Broadcast system, which is the ABC,
“It’s telling evidence to the degree which the system failed the local community.”
After trying to seek funding for better infrastructure through his local federal member Tony Smith and the Carry-Over mobile programs imitative, a $16.4 million fund announced by the federal government to address communications shortfalls outside major cities, Mr Brennan hit another roadblock.
“We were advised by Tony Smith that we might need to look more closely at accessing funding through the State Government,” Mr Brennan said.
“Very quickly after that I was approached by a representative from Connecting Victoria, who was very keen to use our data as part of the relooking at the criteria by which they were allocating funding.”
Connecting Victoria is a $550 million State Government program, which aims to fast-track business-grade broadband and upgrading mobile coverage in Victoria.
Mr Brennan said Connecting Victoria has “been a god send, to be quite honest.”
“They’ve been so embracing of local knowledge, collecting data and encouraging us to input that data into their system so they had a complete database that particularly looked at risk, which had not been part of the original criteria for accessing telecommunications.
“Yarra Ranges Shire very quickly got involved in this and has been wonderful throughout that entire process, with their support we were able to work closely with Connecting Victoria to emphasise the need to close the gap in the recommendations from the bushfire royal commission, which was to provide greater levels of public levels of public access and safety in bushfire prone areas.”
The State Government said it will take the report insights into account and use it to form part of the decision making process for which locations will be upgraded in the future.
“Better connectivity creates enormous opportunities for jobs, boosts community safety and supports growth in some of our most important industries,” Ms Pulford said.
“We’re investing in new infrastructure where it is needed most to ensure more Victorians can reap the benefits of a thriving digital economy.”
Mr Brennan said there needs to be a greater haste in allocating money for telecommunications in the hills and Dandenong Ranges.
“I completely understand they going to go through the processes and the approvals, they’re looking to announce funding in June,” he said.
“Hopefully that money is available and works can be initiated very quickly. Every year without emergency coverage is another which the population is in critical risk, so that’s what needs to happen,
“I am confident in Connecting Victoria’s processes, I’m confident that we’ll get that money allocated. It will be incredibly helpful.”
In late 2021 Yarra Ranges Council introduced 10 trial sites for fixed installations of NBN disaster satellite services throughout the Valley and Dandenong Ranges, including in Monbulk, Olinda and The Patch.
The trials were funded through the Strengthening Telecommunications Against Natural Disaster grant, a $37.1 million federal program.
The service can be activated during and after an emergency to provide internet access for affected communities.
The Connecting Victoria report can read at engage.vic.gov.au/connecting-victoria
