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Funding under to the Remote & Isolated Island Fund is now fully allocated and the program completed.

The Remote and Isolated Islands Fund provided $20 million over four years (1999–2000 to 2002–2003) to assist in meeting the telecommunications needs of people in remote island communities and isolated island communities or the Australian Antarctic Territory.

It addressed particular telecommunications needs of remote islands communities such as the Torres Strait, the Cocos (Keeling) Group, Christmas, Norfolk, King, Flinders, Kangaroo and other islands and in the Australian Antarctic Territories. This element of the program specifically allowed access to Networking the Nation funding for those external territories previously ineligible for funding under the program, as well as providing significant support for other remote island communities particularly disadvantaged by their isolation.

The Remote and Isolated Islands Fund was subject to specific state and territory funding allocations.

It helped to address the telecommunications needs of the external territories identified in the report Islands to Islands: Communicating with Australia's External Territories by the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories.

Selection criteria

The Networking the Nation General Guidelines set out the framework under which the Remote and Isolated Islands Fund operated, including the selection criteria which the Board applied. In brief, these were:

• meeting needs—would the project meet an identified need within the targeted area?
• support for the proposed project—show that the proposal is well supported by all relevant parties
• providing value for money—how would the project provide good value for money?
• ensuring project management skills—show that the project would be well managed
• ensuring sustainable services—show that the project service outcomes are sustainable, or are aimed at supporting the development of sustainable services
• competitive neutrality—show that the project approach is competitively neutral

Project priorities

The Remote and Isolated Islands Fund supported projects similar in nature to those funded under the Networking the Nation General Fund.

The report of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories, Islands to Islands: Communicating with Australia's External Territories, identified a strong relationship between the provision of telecommunications and broadcasting services in the external territories. Therefore, projects that provided for the integrated delivery of both broadcasting and telecommunications services (for example, by establishing satellite downlink services offering both television services and internet services) may have received a higher priority than under the General Fund.

Project location

Projects were located within any island community such as the Torres Strait, the Cocos (Keeling) Group, Christmas, Norfolk, King, Flinders, Kangaroo and other islands and in the Australian Antarctic Territories.
Projects not located within the islands but designed to improve the standard of telecommunications services delivered to the islands were also considered.

Eligible applicants

Not-for-profit organisations, as set out in the Networking the Nation general guidelines, were eligible for funding under the Remote and Isolated Islands Fund.

• Document ID: 6668 |
• Last modified: 6 February 2008, 1:40pm