Revealed: Map of Wide Bay and Burnett’s mobile black spots
As the federal government prepares to spend $40m improving 54 mobile black spots across Australia, not a cent has been allocated to the Wide Bay Burnett, which sits on the cusp of south east Queensland but where lives are at risk and businesses struggle with hundreds of dead zones.
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Ask plenty of Wide Bay Burnett residents if they have experienced problems with mobile phone coverage and internet connectivity, and you will usually receive a roll of the eyes, a shake of the head and a rueful smile.
With government data revealing 433 mobile black spots throughout the region encompassing Bundaberg, the Fraser Coast, Gympie and the Burnett, compared with only 65 black spots for Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Ipswich combined, substandard mobile coverage has long been a fact of life in the region.
But dig deeper into the locals’ stories and you will hear accounts of an outrageous lack of crucial communications infrastructure that is crippling businesses and putting lives at risk.
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Like Brendan Lamb from Duckinwilla, just south of Maryborough.
When Brendan’s father, Graham, collapsed from a cardiac arrest in 2014, his family was unable to communicate with emergency services due to the call dropping out from a poor signal.
Mr Graham and his wife attempted to give Graham CPR, but were unable to revive him due to being unable to get clear instructions from emergency services because of the poor phone reception.
Graham Lamb sadly died on that day - a death that may have been avoided if the area had mobile coverage to the standard expected by all Australians.
Despite nearly a decade passing since the tragic incident, the mobile coverage has not improved.
The Federal government’s Mobile Black Spot Database identifies 77 reception black spots across the Bundaberg region.
The data has not been updated since October 2018, with most sites last updated in February 2016.
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Michael Sheaffe runs an irrigation business in Glastonbury, a small town just 9km from Gympie’s city centre.
Revealed: The Gympie region’s worst mobile black spots
He tells of paramedics being unable to call in a rescue chopper to a serious motorcycle crash near his property a few years ago.
Robyn Logan is aware of many similar incidents involving emergency services in the area around The Grand Hotel, her country pub in Wooroolin, 17km north of Kingaroy.
Revealed: Map of the Burnett’s mobile coverage black spots
While the risk to health and safety is the most serious consequence of the many black spots in the Wide-Bay Burnett, the poor coverage poses significant challenges for the region’s businesses.
Mrs Logan often needs to rely on the loyalty of locals and the kindness of strangers to receive payment for the food, drinks and accommodation provided by her Wooroolin pub.
Staff at The Grand Hotel are often unable to process transactions through the pub’s EFTPOS terminal, so Mrs Logan relies on her customers’ honesty to pay after they have been able to go to an ATM.
The organisers of the embattled Kilkivan Horse Ride have spent years struggling to deal with the fallout of non-existent reception, including a catastrophic outage in 2018 which cost the festival more than $12,000.
Sarah Hansford and her team at Eco Hair Lounge in Kepnock, a Bundaberg suburb 4km from the city centre, often need to take the EFTPOS terminal outside and wave it above their heads to pick up a signal.
Revealed: Bundaberg’s 77 mobile black spots
Prendergast’s Irish Tavern owner Miranda Prendergast said her business, 2km from Bjelke Petersen Dam in the South Burnett, had “very, very poor” mobile coverage.
“It’s crippling in that way,” Mrs Prendergast said.
While the restaurant has not lost any business due to connectivity issues related to the EFTPOS terminal, Mrs Prendergast was aware of potential customers who had decided against coming to the restaurant due to the poor reception.
“I do get customers that won’t come because they’ll be on call, (emergency) service workers and things like that - because they can’t get service they just won’t attend,” she said.
The area around the Bjelke Petersen and Boondooma Dams is a notorious South Burnett black spot.
South Burnett councillor Kathy Duff introduced a motion in the South Burnett Regional Council meeting on March 8, 2023, calling to improve digital connectivity at the dams.
“We have fishing comps and things like that (at the dams) - the EFTPOS connection is so slow, it just holds up the whole proceedings,” Mrs Duff said.
Fraser Coast councillor Jade Wellings has also moved a motion calling on mobile providers to urgently improve coverage across the region after regularly receiving complaints about the lack of mobile connection in her district.
Mapped: Mobile black spots across the Fraser Coast
The Albanese government is planning another round of the Mobile Black Spot Program, with $40 million in grants funding directed to improving mobile coverage at 54 target locations.
However only four of those locations are in Queensland, none of which are in the Wide Bay Burnett.
Originally published as Revealed: Map of Wide Bay and Burnett’s mobile black spots
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