When the internet was finally made available as Dial UP to the Cassilis community, it was well received, but by any standards, very slow. It did demonstrate to residents in the Omeo, Cassilis, Swifts Creek and environs we lived in an isolated back water. Certainly as far as electronic communications were concerned. It was slightly better than nothing.
TPG was the company that placed a point of presence for the internet in Swifts Creek and all who wanted to embrace this new age technology were pleased. This was assisted by the National Farmers Federation supplying really good quality modems with which the connection to the world wide web could be made along the often less than desirable underground copper telephone line.
The thing that brought home the disadvantage to this area, was that everyone who had computers in most cities in Australia, because of their faster speed and greater bandwidth, could send quite large text, graphic and video files that could take hours to download through the slower conduit of copper telephone line and Dial Up Internet “service”. So the residents of this area who took 75 minutes to download a 10 MB file, usually went onto their webmail account and deleted these large files. Nothing demonstrated to the residents of the region more, how disadvantaged they were still. According to subsequent governments, there were not all that many people in these areas of Victoria and they were, in the majority, old and would not readily take up new ideas.
Later of course satellite came on the scene, much slower than ADSL and mobile phones were now commonplace. Hardly practical because of all the black spots over huge tracts of land that this didn't bear thinking about as a communication alternative. This is the case still.
At a meeting in Omeo in those early years, the head of Telstra in this area started the information day saying that in the plains and desert like country of Victoria, the telco could put up towers with enormous distances between them. So when it was suggested that Telstra should put up the towers that it didn't use in those areas in the mountainous areas around Swifts Creek and Omeo. It was quickly stated that it didn't work that way. At this time, what most people associate with this area is, it is without mobile/wireless reception in huge areas.
Now we have the Sky Muster satellite system, and there has been little improvement. Luckily the landline telephones work still, so that the people connected to this very ordinary and flaky internet system, not service. Can ring round and ask their neighbours if they are able to get an internet connection, and be told they are missing out as well.
Our politicians do nothing of consequence to change the situation. The Minister, Hon Mitch Fifield, keeps telling the media that the system is being rolled out on the time target and on budget. But what sort of a system is being rolled out? A half baked satellite system certainly.
This very suspect system was devised in the short, cut corners, Abbott government time with the assistance of the communications minister who has now been raised past his level of competence to Prime Minister of this country. Having said that, there is no way the current Minister can duck or weave his way out of this, below third world standard of internet delivery. It is his job to make certain that he improves on the rubbish he inherited.
The disgrace of this is evident, not only in the amount of outages this area has to suffer, we know not why? It could be flaky equipment, less than adequate number of technicians, lower standard of technical ability or something else. Something more with in the Ministers purview?
The residents of this area, like those in the city need to fill in many forms online, or print them off the web to fill them in and if they have an unreliable, unpredictable internet system to attempt all this, they are severely disadvantaged.
So much is moving over to the digital age and yet as ever, the Cassilis area and the towns that surround it are way behind.
Not being able to pick up any working leases all evening and night, I will have to do what had to be done back in the 80's, go to the community centre and post this text there.
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