Wimmera blackspots: Yaapeet residents disappointed with Telstra tower rollout

The town was not included in a federal government announcement on Thursday for new mobile phone towers. 

Ben Gosling farms north of the town and said he was disappointed and surprised.

"Trying to run a business with no phone service is a nightmare, people are forever missing calls and missing opportunities, especially with grain sales," he said.

"It's also a safety concern with no way of contacting people."

Mr Gosling said the issue was evident during bushfires in January 2014.

At the time, Yaapeet woman Jan Edelsten slammed the lack of mobile phone coverage in the area.

"We've got a desperate need for a mobile phone service,'' she said.

"Emergency services out in the fires - they haven't got any service, just their radios.

"Strike teams can't contact their families after they've been fighting the fires to let them know they're safe.''

Mr Gosling said he thought the town was a good candidate for improved mobile services because of the issues during the fires.

"We weren't able to contact anyone for a week at the time, and that's when the issue really came to the fore," he said.

"We are also a strong tourism area with a number of national parks nearby - I thought that would be another good reason why we would be a priority."

Many areas scheduled for new Telstra towers already receive Optus coverage, including Harrow and Kalkee. 

Mr Gosling said it was terrible that towns without any coverage at all missed out over towns that already had Optus coverage.

"I would just switch to Optus if that was an option for us," he said.

"I thought this was a federal government blackspot program, not a Telstra blackspot program."

He said the Yaapeet community would continue lobbying to improve blackspots.