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Speaker 1: OK, and I have had a few of you getting

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Speaker 1: in contact with us about the mobile phone coverage and

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Speaker 1: your landline coverage out at Dundee and joining me in

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Speaker 1: the studio this morning, we've got the general manager of

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Speaker 1: Telstra for the Northern Territory, Nick Danks, Good morning to

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Speaker 1: your neck.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie. How are you not too bad now?

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Speaker 1: Nick? This situation in Telstra it's one, I mean, the

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Speaker 1: situation in Dundee. It is one that gets raised with

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Speaker 1: us fairly regularly. I would say, not just the landline

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Speaker 1: but also the mobile coverage. Is there some work underway

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Speaker 1: to try and rectify this situation for residents in Dundee?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie. So I think I've been a pet project

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Speaker 2: in mind for a while. I have spent a bit

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Speaker 2: of time down there and spoken to a lot of

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Speaker 2: people down there. We've helped some people out to improve

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Speaker 2: their coverage. But I'm pleased to say that the new

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Speaker 2: tower for Dundee Beach has been approved and funded. We've

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Speaker 2: gone through all the council regulations, had all the approvals

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Speaker 2: through the towers now currently at the Winelli Exchange is

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Speaker 2: being checked to make sure all the parts and everything's

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Speaker 2: right before we go out there. It will be assembled

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Speaker 2: at two hundred and twenty Mermaids Circuit, exactly where the

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Speaker 2: current tower is, so it'll go right next to that,

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Speaker 2: and the build of that will begin at the end

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Speaker 2: of this month and beginning of May. Tower plan to

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Speaker 2: go live due August September. So it's not just a

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Speaker 2: brand new forty meter tower right next to the other one.

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Speaker 2: It's a replacement of all the equipment as well. It'll

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Speaker 2: be brand new antennas, brand new equipment. The coverage will

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Speaker 2: be cbe the equality coverage. It'll get above the height

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Speaker 2: of the trees, which is the issue that we've got.

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Speaker 2: Now it's not a back hall problem, so it's not

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Speaker 2: a problem getting the data to the tower. The tower

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Speaker 2: there Dundee's always been a problem getting the signal out

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Speaker 2: because of the trees and stuff. I could have chopped

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Speaker 2: the top of the trees, but they wouldn't let me

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Speaker 2: do that and let you do. So we've bought a

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Speaker 2: brand new tower and that'll go live, and so the

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Speaker 2: target date is August, but I always say September just

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Speaker 2: in case of whether or something goes wrong. But the

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Speaker 2: tower is physically here in the Northern Territory and it

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Speaker 2: will be assembled during May.

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Speaker 1: June, so literally that work is going to get underway

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Speaker 1: throughout the dry season, so that hopefully it is all

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Speaker 1: done August September at the latest.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, so it'll be a brand new tower. And I'll

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Speaker 2: be more than happy to go down there with a

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Speaker 2: local member and a couple of local people that have

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Speaker 2: spoken to me over the last two or three probably

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Speaker 2: longer years over that and happily cut the ribon on

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Speaker 2: a Friday night and going have it to the club

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Speaker 2: because he's something I'd been passionate about to get done,

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Speaker 2: and we are definitely going to get it done. And

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Speaker 2: no doubt that.

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Speaker 1: You've had plenty of people get in contact with you.

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Speaker 1: I know, like I've got an email just here from Karen.

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Speaker 1: It says, Hi, Katie, I believe you've got tel strong today.

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Speaker 1: I recently moved to Dundee and I'm appalled at the

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Speaker 1: stone age service that we receive. We pay full price

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Speaker 1: for mobile plans, yet we receive probably sixty percent service,

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Speaker 1: and that's only if we fork out to get the

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Speaker 1: equipment for our property. So I know that others have

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Speaker 1: done certain things to try and boost their service out there,

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Speaker 1: haven't they?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the boosters that we Telstra go unit, so

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Speaker 2: we sell the boosters that work really well, the legal ones.

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Speaker 2: We've had some problems over the past, some and legal

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Speaker 2: repeaters down there which have affected the network. This new

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Speaker 2: tower at its new height with the new equipment on it,

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Speaker 2: because the tower is relatively old down there, because the

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Speaker 2: Dundee Beach one was done a long, long long time

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Speaker 2: before I got here. The newest one that's done is

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Speaker 2: by no since I've been here. But it'll give the

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Speaker 2: full coverage of that area. Now, there's going to be

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Speaker 2: a couple of spots we're still may need boosters for

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Speaker 2: because of topography, because of shape of land, height of trees,

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Speaker 2: places where people put buildings. But once the towers get built,

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Speaker 2: we'll look at those individual cases one on one, as

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Speaker 2: we do whenever we put a new tower in anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Now I've got a message on the text sign It

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Speaker 1: says my signal four mobiles drop from four G to

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Speaker 1: two bars down to four G with no bars if

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Speaker 1: you're lucky. It says that if you're lucky, I may

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Speaker 1: get three G. But get sick of phone dropping out

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Speaker 1: and forget the internet that's at the block at hump

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Speaker 1: De dooo and Dundee yep.

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Speaker 2: So I won't know where the address is for that,

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Speaker 2: but again, this tower will address that issue and give

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Speaker 2: them four mobile coverage with all the latest equipment with

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Speaker 2: a forty meter tower compared to a thirty odd meter

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Speaker 2: and some old antenna systems that's on there. This is

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Speaker 2: a completely brand new tower that's going into Dundee.

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Speaker 1: I know, Nick, some people listening will be thinking, how

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Speaker 1: come it's taken so.

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Speaker 2: Long, because we do still have areas in the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory that don't have coverage at all, let alone poor coverage,

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Speaker 2: and we've got to work it through. When everything gets

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Speaker 2: a priority, money's real, we've got to prioritize these jobs.

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Speaker 2: The Dundee one has been passionate mine for a while.

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Speaker 2: We did need to upgrade the fiber through there and

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Speaker 2: that happened when we did the buy no bills and

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Speaker 2: we built the tower at Bino there, so that's helped

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Speaker 2: do this bill. So that's given me more back hall

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Speaker 2: and the plan was always to improve the tower at Dundee.

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Speaker 1: Now I know that we received a message a little

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Speaker 1: bit earlier today about Bori Lula. I'm just trying to

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Speaker 1: find that message so I can read it out. But

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Speaker 1: what's the situation out at Boro Lula at the moment

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Speaker 1: with coverage?

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Speaker 2: At eight fifty on Sunday morning, a team installing the

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Speaker 2: street lights on the corner Robinson Road and Walgreen Road

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Speaker 2: cut the major fiber to the Telster exchange, so they

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Speaker 2: ripped it completely out of the ground. The guys that

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Speaker 2: did it had been wonderful to help our team get

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Speaker 2: it back up and running, so they dug some more

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Speaker 2: pits to help us fix it. We mobilize the team

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Speaker 2: on Monday and all repairs will fixed yesterday, so the

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Speaker 2: mobile coverage has been fixed. Unfortunately, I can do some

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Speaker 2: certain things, but we can't help it when someone rips

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Speaker 2: a cable of the ground. We did speak to the

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Speaker 2: local MP's office. I personally spoke to Steve Edgington, Ryan

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Speaker 2: from my team spoke to the Rape of Council. So

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Speaker 2: we informed as many people as we could. But unfortunately

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Speaker 2: cables do get cut. We are human beings. I just

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Speaker 2: recommend that people use die before they dig before they dig.

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Speaker 2: But this one here was just an accident where the

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Speaker 2: cable got cut.

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Speaker 1: There goodness me. So the cable got cash and it

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Speaker 1: meant that everybody was out of service for a while.

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Speaker 2: No different than the Stuart Highway getting blocked a few

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Speaker 2: months ago and we couldn't get foed up. It's the

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Speaker 2: fiber going to the exchange and they ripped it. This

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Speaker 2: pull of power point out. It's exactly the same thing.

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Speaker 1: Okay, dank Cy. One of the other things that we

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Speaker 1: have been speaking about at different times is out of

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Speaker 1: Howard Springs, the location of this phone tower out at

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Speaker 1: Howard Springs and a lot of people not wanting it

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Speaker 1: in the location that's being proposed. Where are we at

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Speaker 1: with this decision.

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Speaker 2: We're up to the final part of submissions, replying to

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Speaker 2: all the submissions, So that's what delayed the hearing because

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Speaker 2: we have to reply back to all the submissions. Before

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Speaker 2: we do that, we nearly finished all those replies back

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Speaker 2: to all of those and then we'll go through the process.

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Speaker 2: As I said with this one here, we have to

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Speaker 2: go through the process do with all all applications for

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Speaker 2: a new tower. Hopefully I have some news for you

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Speaker 2: short sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 1: Is it a done deal in that spot though.

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Speaker 2: As I said, it's still going through the process and

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Speaker 2: I have to leave it through the process.

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Speaker 1: All right. I know I could ask you that same

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Speaker 1: question in ten different ways and it's still won't answer

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Speaker 1: it for me. So I will make sure that I

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Speaker 1: will make sure that we catch up with you again

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Speaker 1: next week. Now I have got a message here that says,

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Speaker 1: silly question, but why not build a tower near the

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Speaker 1: lodge as the current tower is on the other side.

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Speaker 2: We have to go through. The problem is whe where

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Speaker 2: we build a tower, putting a tower somewhere where someone

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Speaker 2: thinks it's easy. We need to have power availability, We

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Speaker 2: need to have land access, so we'd have to have

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Speaker 2: access to the land, and then we need to go

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Speaker 2: through what the fellow but authority approval exactly a lot

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Speaker 2: we've done with how it springs that takes time that

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Speaker 2: we've had them in our springs where it's taken three

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Speaker 2: years to get approval. The block of land at Dundee

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Speaker 2: where we're building it, we own the land, it's our land,

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Speaker 2: so that the fellow of authority was a lot easier

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Speaker 2: because there was already a tower there. So yes, you

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Speaker 2: could look at moving and yes you can do all that,

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Speaker 2: but then all of a sudden you you've got to

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Speaker 2: go through that whole authority approval and somebody has only

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Speaker 2: got to complain or be upset about the build and

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Speaker 2: that just delays and delays. It takes longer. I know

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Speaker 2: it's taken a while to get to Dundee. But once

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Speaker 2: we got the approval to build Dundee, I didn't want

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Speaker 2: to spend another year going through approval processes. I just

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Speaker 2: want to get thing built and my target was to

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Speaker 2: get it done for the next drive to the next

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Speaker 2: holiday season. This is the quickest I could get it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is so important out there at Dundee.

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Speaker 1: I mean we know that it like the population has

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Speaker 1: exploded out at Dundee in the sense that there's plenty

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Speaker 1: of people that live out there, but throughout the you know,

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Speaker 1: throughout the tourist season, there's a lot of people out there.

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Speaker 2: And one of the things COVID did good better otherwise,

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Speaker 2: it did improve the tourism internally within Australia and that

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Speaker 2: helped get some funding up for some of these ones

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Speaker 2: that we're doing that struggled to get there before because

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Speaker 2: it was peaks and troughs. Because a lot more tourists

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Speaker 2: are coming through, we're doing a lot more local builds

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So any others that we should know about,

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Speaker 1: because I know I just got a message from Mick.

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Speaker 1: He said, Katie, I only get one bar of four

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Speaker 1: G and rapid Creek.

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Speaker 2: I need to send me his address. And I look

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Speaker 2: at that one because that could be a to Boget,

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Speaker 2: that could be an issue with a building, humanwards or

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Speaker 2: something wrong there. But send me, get him to send

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Speaker 2: you the address and I'll give him a call personally.

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Speaker 2: But but yeah, we yes, I have got some more builds.

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Speaker 2: There's what's called the Regional Regional Connectivity Program too by

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Speaker 2: the federal government. We're just waiting for their announcement. That

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Speaker 2: should be suited rather than later. And as soon as

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Speaker 2: we announced that, I have put him for nine new

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Speaker 2: sites in the Northern Territory and they've got people who

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Speaker 2: have been involved and know where they are. But I'm

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Speaker 2: happy to announce those once the federal government announce what

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Speaker 2: they're doing.

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Speaker 1: Danksy, just to go back to that, the new tower

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Speaker 1: out at Dundee, It's been a long time in the making,

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Speaker 1: hasn't it. How long has it taken for you to,

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Speaker 1: you know, to reach this point where the building's going

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Speaker 1: to get under.

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Speaker 2: One naxt three years. It's probably taken which is about

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Speaker 2: normal to build it. By the time you start a

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Speaker 2: process of getting a tower and to build it's about

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Speaker 2: the three year process by Tommy. And when we go

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Speaker 2: through it, getting funding approved, local council approval, talking to

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Speaker 2: the locals as well. It has been going on for

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Speaker 2: a while at Dundee and of course usage has got

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Speaker 2: more and more and more and said they won'tly be

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Speaker 2: choped down the trees, so I've got to build a

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Speaker 2: bigger tower.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I know that the people of Dundee are

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Speaker 1: going to be pleased. They're going to be really pleased

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Speaker 1: when that work is underway and when it's all complete.

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Speaker 1: We really appreciate you coming in this morning and we

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Speaker 1: will stalk you next week about that Howard Springs location.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,