Telstra moves to spruce up Wonga Beach site after backlash from local residents

“A bit of public shaming” – to quote a local resident – has apparently spurred communications company Telstra to improve the state of its telecoms tower site and demountable shed structures at Wonga Beach.

The site previously came under the spotlight, again thanks to locals, when water damage affected TV retransmission hardware after heavy rains.

Newsport published a story on the problems in March last year.

This time, attention was brought back to the location, on the corner of Mossman Daintree Rd and Wonga Beach Rd, mainly because of unsightliness.

A resident, Sam Gusmeroli, took to social media saying that public shaming appeared the best way “for Telstra to do something about the state of their assets at Wonga,” she posted.

“Hopefully they clean the site up and repair/upgrade whatever needs to be done.”

There were a few responses praising her for highlighting the sight of the site, including one asking, “are they going to fix it? It’s funny you post this as we were just saying the same thing today as we drove past, big old ugly torn tarp over it. The cyclone taught them nothing clearly.”

Having a “torn tarp” over one of the buildings also prompted a flurry of emails to Telstra by local customers, who asked whether technology possibly failed because of leaks during heavy rainfall.

They reported internet dropouts and other phone communication issues, the most recent being in May.

Now, after many months of emailing by Ms Gusmeroli and others, it appears the social media commentary has prompted some action.

A contractor’s truck has been spotted at the site in recent days, and the sheds have evidently had a new paint job and a general sprucing up, and gone is the ugly old tarp.

One of those other local residents who also emailed Telstra, Tarryn Morana, told Newsport there’s definitely been some visible repairs to the infrastructure.