Lucas, a suburb of the city of Ballarat in western Victoria, is one of the fastest growing suburbs in the region. It is located just 7km from the centre of Ballarat yet has extremely poor telephone and internet reception. Lucas has such poor reception that in some parts of the suburb, residents are unable to make or receive phone calls at all. Some have absolutely no reception inside their homes, while others have one or two “bars”.

With the pandemic requiring a lot of people to work from home - not to mention emergency situations, older children with mobile phones for safety reasons and the need for solid phone coverage for everyone - this situation is unacceptable.

Lucas is attracting a high level of development, with many new housing estates and homes being built. The area’s new primary school is in a telecommunications black spot – many parents are unable to get any reception there at all. There is barely any coverage at the Lucas shopping centre, where the main office of the Ballarat Community Health Centre, and the supermarket, petrol station, and other shops are located.

In this day and age, in a suburb of a major Victorian regional city, we should have exceptional coverage that allows all residents, businesses and organisations to conduct their professional and personal lives without issue.

Despite numerous commitments over several years from Telstra and Optus to instal new telecommunications towers to rectify the issue, this has not happened. We request the relevant telecommunications companies Telstra and Optus fix this problem immediately by installing more infrastructure to cover the black spots.