To: The Advocate
Faxed on 11-11-1995

It is always heartwarming to read good advice from blow-in experts, and Tim Gingell’s exhortation for more imagination, please! (Mailbox, 8/11) is no exception. But wo/man doesn’t live on imagination alone - unless perhaps s/he is a marketing wizard whose chief currency are words (the memorable, if long-fizzled, magic of the ‘Champagne Coast’ designation bestowed on our imagination-starved shores by the practitioners of the art springs to mind here...).

I must therefore rise in defence of the hypothetical entrepreneurially challenged Bungwahl fringe dweller: Before this hapless person embarks on the course suggested would s/he please consider not only the dismal demographics of the general area, but also the consumption habits of the elusive tourist. Far from encouraging local initiative, for example, this species will think nothing of zipping up to Taree to equip the laptop with the necessary modem and comms software to partake in the praised delights of cyberia...All we now want is a local access point provided by someone who gets by on imagination! Ah, yeah...

In a presentation slide show I prepared for NEIS a year ago to enliven my business plan for DataShed, I alluded to “Patronage from local users” as one key ingredient in making a go of the venture which, yes Tim, included an on-site Internet access facility. The reason I haven’t yet committed to allocating the necessary resources is that I doubt I’ll ever see a return on the investment. (Don’t fret, Tim, knowing me I’ll probably still go for imagination over income!)
But I wouldn’t mind an indication from you and other putative users as to whether, how often and at what price point you’d be patronising such an imaginative offering. And I’m sure, so would the bloke from Bungwahl...

Meanwhile I have to agree that ‘Australia’s Holiday Coast’ is a singularly boring appellation!