Gympie vents after Census fail frustration

WHILE some spent hours trying to battle through Tuesday night's online Census meltdown, other Gympie residents were glad they did it earlier in the day.

WHILE some spent hours trying to battle through Tuesday night's online Census meltdown, other Gympie residents were glad they did it earlier in the day.   

Residents shared their Census frustration on Facebook after attempting to complete the online survey only to find out the website had crashed.

At 11pm on Tuesday the Australian Bureau of Statistics said the system outage will not be fixed overnight and reassured people they would not be fined for completing the form after August 9.  

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At 6.30am on Wednesday morning the Australian Bureau of Statistics website had this message:  

The system is very busy at the moment. Please try again later - thank you for your patience and understanding.  

Residents vented on Facebook with those who took the paper option or got online early feeling thankful they did.   

Louisa Wirata was not happy after she spent time filling ou the form only to find the system crashed.

"I've just spent a long time filling the form out for 3 people, and then submitted it.. And poof it crashed and now I have to do the dam thing all over again😖😖😖not happy.   

Anne Fisher, who also tried to ring the ABS as suggested, still struggled to get anywhere.  

"'Get online on August 9' and find you just wasted time! Wont submit..error after error...Call number displayed wont even ring. What a joke! Finally get a recording that says to call back after the 10th," she wrote on The Gympie Times Facebook page.

"Slogan should have been "Get online August 9 (a few at a time) and August 10 and 11. ..but dont ALL get online on August 9 as we cant cope."

Sally Seabrook was relieved she got in early:  

" I figured it would crash as everyone would be trying to get on around the same time. I did mine around 6pm and had no problem. So much quicker then paper.

"Well once you got one. I had heard that you could have done it earlier then tonight. But it never said that on the letter. Otherwise I would have done it days ago."        

There will be no fines for completing the Census after Aug 9. There’s still plenty of time to complete the Census. Thanks for your patience.

— Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016

Did you have issues or get through while trying to fill out Census last night? Join the discussion and tell us below.