LYONS GETS A LION’S SHARE OF MOBILE BLACK SPOT MONEY

MORE than $12.6 million will be spent on 19 mobile phone base stations across the Lyons electorate to fix mobile black spots as part of major national funding announced today.

Federal Lyons MP Eric Hutchinson said that the big spend effecting 50 unique locations and 15 different sections of roads and highways across the electorate would make a huge difference to the lives of people in the region.

The Federal Government has contributed $5.2 million towards the total cost of the major communications upgrade in Lyons. Five per cent of the national funding for this program is in the electorate of Lyons.

It will mean that 65 of the 155 mobile black spots identified across the electorate will be addressed by either handheld phones or external antenna coverage or both.

And the Federal Government has committed to a second round of incentive funding to encourage telecommunications operators to bid for contracts for other locations.

The funding package announced today will see new base stations established at Cramps Bay, at the Great Lake (Telstra); Mole Creek (Telstra); Rossarden (Telstra); Whitefoord (Telstra); Apslawn (Vodafone); Bicheno (Vodafone); Bothwell (Vodafone); Brandum (Vodafone); Buckland (Vodafone); Goshen (Vodafone); Hamilton (Vodafone); Highland Lakes Road between Steppes and Bothwell (Vodafone); Lyell Highway, Wayatinah (Vodafone); Miena (Vodafone); Okehampton Beach (Vodafone); Pyengana (Vodafone); Swansea (Vodafone); Tarreleah (Vodafone); Tasman Highway and Little Swanport (Vodafone).

Coverage will be provided to all or part of the following locations in Lyons either by handheld phones or via external antennas on motor vehicles:
Acacia Hills, Friendly Beaches, Powranna, Apslawn, Golden Valley, Pyengana, Beulah, Goshen, Quamby Brook, Bicheno, Hamilton, Reynolds Neck, Bothwell, Hollow Tree, Rhyndaston, Bracknell, Jackeys Marsh, Rossarden, Brandum, Little Pine Lagoon, Runneymede, Buckland, Lower Barrington, Sheffield, Chain of Lagoons, Lower Wilmot, Spring Beach, Colebrook, Meander, Swansea, Coles Bay, Miena, Swanick, Cramps Bay, Mole Creek, Tarraleah, Cranbrook, Montana, Triabunna, Cressy, Mount Seymour, Tunnack, Dairy Plains, Okehampton Beach, Wayatinah, Dee Lagoon, Orford, Whiteford, Dolphin Sands and Parattah.

Roads and Highway sections where coverage will now be provided include:
Dennistoun Road – between Quoin and Interlaken; Golden Valley Road – between Bogan Rd and Highland Lakes Rd; Highland Lakes Rd – between Bothwell and Great Lake; Hollow Tree Rd – between Lyell Highway and Hollow Tree; Hollowtree Rd – between Hollow Tree and Halletts Hill; Lake Leake Highway – between Swansea and Campbell Town; Lyell Highway – between Bronte and Derwent Bridge; Lyell Highway – between Tungatinah Power Station and Ouse; Marlborough Highway – between Miena and Bronte Park; Mole Creek Main Rd – between Westbury and Mole Creek; Tasman Highway – between Buckland and Sorell; Tasman Highway – between Orford and Buckland; Tasman Highway – between Pontypool and Saltworks; Tasman Highway – between Triabunna and Swansea and Woodsdale Rd – between Parattah and Woodsdale.

Mr Hutchinson welcomed said the major spend in Lyons on mobile black spots as a tremendous help for the community and a boost for tourism, especially along the East Coast.

“We took this issue in our electorate very seriously and the feedback we had on the ground was that it was more important in many areas to our community than NBN connection,’’ he said.

“I want to thank the councils in Lyons for their help on this and I want to thank Telstra and Vodafone for their support for regional and remote communities in my electorate.

“Working out how to tackle the mobile black spot issue in Lyons was a really comprehensive process and complicated matrix but was so important to the community.

“In remote and regional areas mobile communication is essential – it’s a safety issue.

“When you fall off your motor bike out in the back paddock and you’re injured, it’s your mobile phone that you reach for to try and get help, not your NBN.

“This Federal Government subsidy has allowed the commercial carriers to reach into regional areas that they would not have otherwise been justified in going – and so much of this electorate falls into that category.”
FEDERAL Lyons MP Eric Hutchinson