Digital divide reduced with laptop giveaway

By Samantha Elley Deborah Hawkins of

Grafton was doing her TAFE studies the hard way, without a laptop and no chance of being able to afford one.

That all changed last week when she headed to Woodburn to receive a special gift.

One hundred refurbished laptops were packed and stacked, ready and waiting at the Woodburn Hub last week, to be distributed to those who normally couldn’t afford what has become a basic need for every household.

Thanks to the work of

Good360, a charity that connects unsold consumer goods with people in need, the consortium of neighbourhood centres on the Northern Rivers and the QANTAS Regional Grant program, many people will be able to ‘go digital’ now.

“We are giving away 100 refurbished laptops, dongles and SIM cards, to provide data, “ said Liz Finlayson of Good360.

“We are a collector of goods with lots of contacts and spread the love all over Australia.”

“It’s just like Christmas,” she said.

“It will help me with my TAFE studies in early childhood.”

Since February this year, Deborah has had to write up her essays and then head to the TAFE library and type it up using a computer there.

“Now I can do it at home,” she said.

“I hadn’t even slept a night there,” she said. “If I had delayed my move by a week, I would have been ok.”

Now she has a new laptop, which will save her eyes when she is watching movies and will allow her daughter to do some beauty courses online.

“We cover the areas from South Grafton up to Murwillumbah,” she said.

“And we allocated people working in the Recovery Support Services, to nominate those they are working with, to receive a laptop.

Jamie Cooper of the Mid Richmond Neighbourhood Centre is the representative of the consortium of Northern Rivers neighbourhood centres and was pleased to be able to hand the laptops to those who needed them most.

“We thought that was the fairest way.”

Deborah was thrilled with her new gift.

This will make up for the two laptops she lost when her caravan was involved in an accident in Ballina during the floods.

Kerri Mann of East Coraki had only just moved into her Woodburn home two years ago when the flood hit.

Chantelle Ginger, Good360’s Head of Customer Success and Memberships said the digital divide in Australia is a problem.

“It’s a lot greater than people might understand,” she said.

“The digital need is a need, not just a want.”

By Tim Howard

Ten years after it ceased trading a Yamba icon turned eyesore, Gormans Big Oyster Restaurant, red tape is about the only thing holding the building up.

The latest chapter in the saga to get rid of the rapidly decaying building at the eastern end of Yamba Bay, played out at Clarence Valley Council’s March 26 meeting, where every aspect of the confusion of ownership, native title and land rights received an airing.

Cr Ian Tiley sought to clear up the confusion which has dogged plans for the site since the restaurant sold under the hammer for $2,005,000 in September 2020.

He arrived with a letter from the CEO of the Yamba Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, Billy Walker, penned that day, which informed the council the corporation was in discussion with the site owners to arrive at an Indigenous Land Use Agreement.

The letter revealed the corporation and the owners of the site, Swell 77 Pty Ltd, had been meeting for several years and had reached an agreement to move forward with an ILUA for the redevelopment of the site.

“Please advise council that the corporation have already had ILUA discussions with the owner in relation to access for the redevelopment of the Gorman’s old restaurant and have reached an agreement to move forward with an ILUA for the redevelopment of the site,” Cr Tiley said, reading from the letter.

On that basis, Cr Tiley moved an alternative motion: That council note that the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation have already

By Tim Howard