‘Someone might have noticed sooner’: Remote indigenous community begs for mobile phone coverage after young family died when their car broke down along an Outback road
- Central Desert MLA Scott McConnell said locals didn’t just need phone signal
- The incident showed data coverage was needed for Facebook and Whatsapp
- A young family and a 12-year-old boy died last week after their car broke down
- The group were less than a 10-minute drive from water which was 18km away
A remote desert community is calling for better mobile phone coverage after a young family died when their car broke down on an outback road.
The bodies of a yet unnamed young couple, both aged 19, and their three-year-old son were found in the Northern Territory on Wednesday, 4.5km away from their broken-down car.
The body of a 12-year-old boy was found a day later at around 2pm just 120 metres away after a desperate air and land search.
It is believed the group had been unable to find phone signal.
Central Desert MLA Scott McConnell said it wasn’t just better signal that was needed, but improved data connectivity to ensure stranded travelers could contact their family via Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
A remote desert community is calling for better mobile phone coverage after a young family died when their car broke down on an outback road (pictured, the access road near to where they were found)
The bodies of a yet unnamed young couple, both aged 19, their three-year-old son and a family friend were found in the Northern Territory on Wednesday, 4.5km away from their broken-down car (pictured Willowra where they started their ill-fated journey)
Central Desert MLA Scott McConnell (pictured) said it wasn’t just better signal that was needed, but improved data connectivity to ensure stranded travelers could contact their family via Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp
He told NT News: ‘Mobile coverage is absolutely critical – most people are getting all their news through phones in remote communities.
‘It’s not just calling, it is also about messaging – if there was that greater connectivity and they’d been offline for a long time someone might have noticed sooner.’
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The ill-fated group had left Willowra in central Northern Territory on Friday bound for the remote community of Jarra Jarra, 500 kilometers north of Alice Springs.
According to cellular map provider nperf.com, only Telstra provides a service to the area surrounding Willowra – located between two of the state’s major road arteries.
A staff member from the Ti-Tree Roadhouse, near to where the group set off from, told Daily Mail Australia a phone signal from Optus could be found in Willowra (pictured annotated) but only Telstra offered connectivity in the surrounding areas
According to cellular map provider nperf.com , only Telstra provides a service to the area surrounding Willowra – located between two of the state’s major road arteries (dots symbolise phone and data connectivity)
A staff member from the Ti-Tree Roadhouse, near to where the group set off from, told Daily Mail Australia a phone signal from Optus could be found in Willowra but only Telstra offered connectivity in the surrounding areas.
Telstra has been contacted for comment.
The car and the bodies were found 18km from Jarra Jarra community on a dry but unsealed access road.
The vehicle had a flat tyre and had run out of fuel.
Jarra Jarra would have been the nearest water source and it would have taken around ten minutes to drive the short distance.
Their deaths have been attributed to hyperthermia and starvation after what was meant to be a five-hour commute turned into five days in the wilderness.
Authorities said the 12-year-old had ‘broad family linkages’ with the deceased family.
Out of respect for the families involved, the authorities have not released the hometowns of the dead or said which specific community they belonged to.
The car and the bodies were found 18km from the Jarra Jarra community on a dry but unsealed access road (pictured)
The teenage parents left morsels of food and water at their abandoned car and attempted to find help in the Jarra Jarra community.
They never made it that far, and even if they had police said there was no-one living in the isolated community at the time.
An alarm was raised by a ‘distraught’ man at an Aboriginal health clinic at remote Willowra who found their dead bodies just before 12.30pm on Wednesday.
Ryan, the manager of the Ti-Tree Roadhouse, said the situation was tragic and he felt especially for the youngest victim.
He said: ‘I feel for the three-year-old the most – he would have had no idea what was going on. At least the rest of them would have known the trouble they were in.’
Police are still continuing precautionary land and air searches to rule out anyone else being stranded in the Outback
The governing Central Desert Regional Council, meanwhile, has offered their sympathy to the communities affected while saying the incident was ‘a timely reminder of the harshness of the Australian outback’.
The searing heat reached 40C (104F) at the start of the week in Willowra and 38C (100F) on Wednesday before dropping off in the past few days.
Police said they would prepare a report for the coroner.
The deaths were initially thought to have been caused by a car crash – but that was quickly ruled out as the tragic reality of the situation became clear.
Investigators were only able to arrive at the scene on Thursday due to flooding and the remoteness of the area.
The 12-year-old boy’s body was found near the young family’s corpses, after they had all left Willowra (inset) on Friday destined for nearby Yarra Yarra
‘One of the avenues of inquiry that we’re looking at is if people walked away from a broken down vehicle and may have suffered as result of that,’ duty superintendent Shaun GIll said on Thursday.
Mr Gill said the two adults and child may have died several days before they were found, and NT Police stated in a press conference on Friday they believed the family could have been at the location since the day they set off .
‘This does serve, unfortunately, as a timely reminder for anyone travelling on NT roads to ensure that when you travel your vehicle is in a fit state and that you have sufficient supplies including water and a first aid kit,’ Superintendent Jody Nobbs said.
‘Also make sure someone is aware of what your travel itinerary is — when you intend to leave, arrive and your anticipated routes.’
Mr Gill said an ‘extreme weather event’ may have caused the deaths.
It is not known why the car broke down but it is understood there was no mobile phone coverage for the stranded group (pictured Wirliyajarrayi near Willowra near where their car broke down)
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