For decades residents at Nunamara and Targa have lived in a black spot area. 

But at the Nunamara Community Hall on Thursday morning, Telstra launched two towers to solve the issue. 

The campaign for better mobile coverage began about the same time the first flip-mobile phone was launched.

In 2002, David Jones bought the local shop at Nunamara, but soon discovered if was plagued by poor communications.

While frustrated, Mr Jones’ campaign for change ramped up in 2003 after a serious car crash. 

“There’d been a motor vehicle accident out on the road and these people that had come across this accident had to drive down the road until they found a light on where they could go and report the fact somebody had been hurt,” he said.

Only about 25 minutes out Launceston, Mr Jones said the town’s poor communication surprised then Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull, who spoke with Mr Jones at the Tailrace Centre about four years ago. 

“I said: ‘Minister let’s turn around and look out the window’ – you could see Mount Barrow – I said; ‘that’s a short distance from here and we’ve got no mobile phone coverage’,” Mr Jones recalled. 

Mr Jones said fires in the region two years ago “could have been catastrophic” if the wind changed and a series of events occurred. 

"It would have been very easy for this to be another Dunalley because you’ve got a highway that way and a highway that way,” he said, pointing down the road. 

“Cut the two ends off and you’ve got a lot of people trapped in the middle. 

For the next three years Mr Jones said the town “kept bouncing the ball” until Telstra announced in 2015 the installation of two towers to service Nunamara and Targa. 

Mr Jones was pleased with the collaborative effort between the state and federal governments to see the matter resolved – and singled out the work of Treasurer Peter Gutwein from the beginning.

He believes the quiet town on the outskirts of Launceston will see more visitors – who know help is a call away.

“The number of people that come out here of a weekend who do hobby bike riding and that type of thing on the trails – a lot of people chose to go other areas where if they had a fuel breakdown or they broke a leg, broke a bone, they were safer on the other side of town,” he said. 

“Now people can pick up the phone and tell their family they’re okay.”

Telstra chief operations officer Robyn Denholm said it was “satisfying” to attend the launch.