Media Release

Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has named the mobile blackspot hotspot areas for priority attention ahead of the Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program for the Kennedy electorate.

Mr Katter said today that the Mission Beach area as well as the Kennedy Highway from Kuranda to Mareeba deserved top priority status, given the high levels of tourists and locals travelling through.

These locations were closely followed Yarrabah, Innot Hot Springs, Adels Grove Camping Ground and Tolga as areas for priority attention which receive little to no mobile phone reception.

Mr Katter said that he had listened to the concerns of locals as he travelled through his electorate in making these nominations.

Nearly 4,000 people a day travel the Kennedy Highway between Kuranda and Mareeba.

Adels Grove in North West Queensland receives high numbers of tourists each year, who are often left stranded without phone reception in the event of breakdown.

Yarrabah is a First Australian community of approximately 4,000 people, only half an hour south of Cairns, yet phone reception is intermittent at best.

Mr Katter said today that the tyranny of distance was something that his electorate had long strived to overcome.

“My family nearly perished when my father got bogged outside McKinlay and suffered 3rd degree burns on his hands and knees, we thought his number was up.

“To someone in the city mobile coverage seems like a small thing, but when a family member nearly perishes, it shows how valuable these things are.

“Work output has increased by 30% due to mobile phones, whereas before we had dead running time in the car without mobile service.

“Each blow we strike against the tyranny of distance, is therefore a strike for our freedom,” Mr Katter said.

In June 2015 the Kennedy electorate received funding for 18 mobile blackspot locations, to be rolled out over three years. The locations given funding in 2015 and those nominated for priority in 2016 are below:

2016 Priority 1 locations:

Mission Beach

Kennedy Highway from Kuranda and Mareeba

2016 Priority 2 locations:

Yarrabah

Innot Hot Springs

Adels Grove Camping Ground

Tolga

18 Blackspot locations granted funding in June 2015:

Abergowerie

Barkly Highway, between Mount Isa and Camooweal A

Barkly Highway, between Mount Isa and Camooweal B

Barkly Highway, between Mount Isa and Cloncurry

Butchers Creek

Dalbeg

Flying Fish Point

Forsayth

Goldsborough Valley

Greenvale

Gregory

Gulf Developmental Road, between Georgetown and Croydon

Julatten

Long Pocket

McKinlay

Torrens Creek

Urandangi

Watsonville