About 150 carrier pigeons have been released into the sky from Victoria's Goulburn Valley in a pre-election stunt to demonstrate the region's poor communications network.
Independent candidate for Nicholls Rob Priestly dispatched the birds from the rural town of Wunghu to put major parties on notice about the need for better phone and internet coverage.
"Lots of small communities in our electorate suffer from either poor-quality coverage or no coverage at all and it has really serious impacts on our economy and on the safety of our residents," he said.
"We want to see that changed."
Mr Priestly said Nicholls had received little funding from the federal government's Mobile Black Spot Program compared to the neighbouring electorate of Indi, which was currently held by Independent MP Helen Haines.
"There are clearly mobile coverage problems, and we need them addressed."
Minister for Regional Communications Bridget McKenzie said the government had money on the table to fix mobile reception.
"We've just announced another $1.3 billion dollars in the budget a couple of weeks ago, recognising that whilst we've done a lot … there's still more to do," she said.
Ms McKenzie added that letter-writing campaigns "or the release of carrier pigeons" did not play into the decision-making of government.
"It just simply doesn't," she said.
Eftpos impossible
Katherine Lewis and her husband own the auto wreckers in Wunghnu where they cannot run an eftpos machine because of the poor reception, which she said had cost them business.
"We ask customers if they do direct debit and [if] they say, 'Yes', we have to ask them to leave the shed and go out the front of the property to transfer us money," she said.
Brett Banner has lived in the town for the past five years and said he had also lost business due to poor reception.
He added that it had affected him personally when he needed emergency assistance.
"I was left on the floor while my wife had to go outside to get reception to actually call the ambulance."
New tower for Indi
Meanwhile, a notorious black spot in Tarrawingee, located in the adjacent electorate of Indi, is to get a new mobile phone tower.
The federal government allocated $518,900 for a new Telstra macro cell mobile station under round two of its Regional Connectivity Program, following a long campaign by the town's business and residents.
The Plough Inn has to run its entire business by paper because there was not enough reception to run order systems or even play music through wi-fi.
"But we just kept bringing it up at every opportunity with every politician that we could, and it's so nice to be awarded for that perseverance. "
Mr Lithgow said the issue had become more acute over the past two years as people struggled to work from home due to poor reception.
He hoped the new tower would be the fix they have been waiting for.
"I just think it'll help the community connect better — I think it'll help everyone."
