CHAPTER 2 THE WESTERN AUSTRALIA TELECENTRE NETWORK

is Australia’s largest state, covering about one-third of the country’s 7,682,300 square kilometres. It is also one of the least populated, with l.7 million people, predominantly clustered around the state capital Perth and 11 major towns. The 200 other communities, ranging from the small settlements scattered across the spectacularly rugged Kimberley region more than 3,000 kilometres north of Perth to the coastal towns of the Great Southern region 500 kilometres south of Perth, have a total population of only 200,000. It is these remote and rural communities that the Western Australia (WA) Telecentre Network (currently made up of 76 centres, but planned to increase to 100) aims to serve. HISTORY The WA Telecentre Network had its origins in a request by the WA Office of Higher Education to the author, then one of its senior research officers, to explore ways of improving access and support for those wishing to pursue post-compulsory studies in remote and rural Western Australia. The author’s research led her to suggest that the answer could lie in technology and she requested a review of delivery modes b