It was the early 2000s and Paula Townsend saw that something needed to be done.

Twelve years later, Paula as Manager of Bowen Community Technology Centre, provides an invaluable service delivering computer and internet access for disadvantaged groups that would otherwise have no access to this transformative technology.

Through the Bowen Residents Action Group, Paula recently obtained $2500 under Orange Ex-Services Club’s Community Grants Program.

“It all started 12 or 13 year’s ago, we had three houses that burnt down in a week. There was arson, theft, vandalism,” she remembers.

“A group of us got-together and whinged to the police who basically got everyone on board; Cadia (Mines) gave funding for our first computers,” Paula said.

“We got three of them; they were XP-486s and they were terrible!” she laughs. “But they were a start, so many of our clients didn’t know how to use them and we knew we needed more,” she said.

The Community Technology Centre has expanded now to a dozen computers used by hundreds of locals, parents, and kids each week. “Our numbers show that we have 95 kids a week here. We have nearly 5000 visits a year with 80 per cent of our clients children,” she said.

“They often have computers at home, but they’re either old, not connected to the internet, full of viruses, or have no printer attached,” Paula said.

But with Windows 10 no longer supported by Microsoft after December, replacement computers will be required in the near future. “We’ve made a funding submission for replacements, they’ll be second-hand, but they’ll have upgrades,” she explained.

Until then, she said, the money from the Ex-Services Club is a god-send for the organisation.

“This money will help us run the Centre, we’re very excited; it’s massive to us,” she enthused. “We run on a shoestring and this will help us enormously,” she said.

The money, she explained, will be used to pay for NBN usage, printing, ink cartridges, and insurance. “That’s a pretty massive thing for us,” she said.