Chapter 6: Australia: Advancing Digital Inclusion in Rural Towns

Rural Australia is home to about 7 million people, nearly 30% of the total Australian population (Australian Government, 2024), living in diverse landscapes: beach havens, arid deserts, lush rainforests, rolling hills and scrubby bushland. One in 10 Australians live in a ‘small town’ with less than 10,000 people, and there are 88 small towns Australia wide (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). Rural Australians choose to live in these towns for the fresh air, wide-open spaces, community atmosphere and opportunities to work in rural industries like agriculture and mining. Owing to the country’s vast size (the size of Australia is about 7,688,287 square kilometres), small rural towns are often situated many hours’ drive from cities and regional urban centres. Accordingly, compared to city-dwellers, rural Australians have access to fewer services across health, education, social services and telecommunications.