PATCHY telecommunication service, lacklustre road conditions and straining rate prices have left a bad taste in the mouth of Nebo graziers.
Mt Flora Cattle Co grazier Alan 'Griff' Symonds has spent years trying to tackle high land rate prices and valuations - with Mt Flora and his neighbouring property, Oxford Downs, costing him close to $30,000 in the last year for rates.
"It's a lot of money you've got to find every year," he said.
On top of that, he forked out another $30,000 for the quarter for his leasehold land at Mt Flora.
"With the state government valuation, it's been going up significantly. We objected it a few years ago and what it cost us in the legals to do it...it only bought us three years and you're back up to the full rate," he said.
"In the last couple of years, rural grazing properties have significantly increase in value but I think that when the mining boom was on the way up, it peaked and they were resuming a lot of these cattle properties for mining exploration.
"Over 50 per cent of the graziers I knew when I was growing up and came home from school, they've all gone. They had their properties taken off them, they've all become coal mines or offset areas for coal mines.
"A lot of those foresales were overinflated and that subsequently allowed the government to say 'that was sold for X amount'. But there were no grazing people who were going to pay that sort of rates for it. I think it's very untrue as to how they based their increases.
"Whether we've had a bad year or a good year, they're still going up. (But) there are no reductions with their income."
Mr Symonds said rural regions were missing out on support from the state government.
"We're not well supported...I don't see there is a lot coming back into regional areas, and it's not only from an agricultural point of view, it's from we're in the heart of the mining area and the amount of dollars that get taken out of this area...it all funnels into the south east," he said.
"We probably get the cheapest cents in the dollar for rates charges, but the only way we've really got any reduction is by having two neighbouring properties and we were fortunate enough to merge those two together.
"That's the only concession that we've managed to get. But...they always have a way around of getting it back out of you.
"(I've) got a bit of a bad taste in my mouth with what you get out of it with local governments especially. There's so much waste. While they've got a duty of care for the population, there's really no thought."
Mr Symonds had been in discussions with Isaac Regional Council about the condition of local roads.
"We've got a section of road that goes past our Oxford property and that goes down to Cockenzie...there are a couple of sections of bitumen road and they are that bad they're nearly impassible. You've nearly got to take your car or your truck out of the table drain to get around these roads," he said.
"(Council) sent the crews out there and they just dumped pre-mix into the holes and....they just made it worse.
"There are other graziers down the Valkyrie Access Road. Everyone you talk to is just so annoyed...you sort of expect (more) in return for rates."
"I've travelled a fair bit of central Queensland and...(the roads are of) a very poor standard.
"From our point of view, with having to transport cattle to market, I don't know how you could not put a figure on what that adds to bruising, especially with prime cattle going to markets."
According to Mr Symonds, he also does not receive council assistance with rubbish or water.
"All our road into here is at our own expense. We don't get provided with an access at all," he said.
"I contacted (council) about the guy slashing the roads here...I still haven't had a response back from them. It won't worry council or operators of tractors if we get Rat's Tail Grass...but we've got to worry about it.
"There are a handful of maintenance guys at Nebo and we can't get a road graded.
"I know where (all the rates go). It's nice to have a nice town and all the rest of it...(but) that's originally what the rates were all about, to provide the essentials: roads, rubbish and water."
While the Cockenzie Road was graded 18 months ago, Mr Symonds said he noticed a consistent use of rough surface signs popping up on damaged roads.
"There is no pride in the work that they do," his wife Janet Symonds said.
"And it just proves that when they went over there to fix that section."
For six days, Nebo was without Telstra service, with bars only appearing on mobile devices on March 9-10.
"With all the push for the NBN and it's not much chop either. They would've been better off focusing on providing us with a decent mobile coverage. Coming through Nebo...you've got normal service and a few kms up the road, you've got black spots," Mr Symonds said.
"Most of the way to Mackay, the top of the range, there's nothing. I think back to when...mum and dad had a big bag phone, analogue, and they could get service anywhere. Twenty-four years later, we're going backwards.
"Other than getting a satellite phone or something like that. I don't know whether 5G is going to be any better. They're phasing out 3G and I believe 5G is coming, but we're getting notifications saying they're still unsure how they're going to keep us connected with a landline service.
"We do have (Telstra) WiFi through the landline...but most of the time you cannot connect to the internet. We've got Skymesh. It's the one that's reliable. We've gone and got one of those (satellites)...to improve our mobile coverage. When you walk outside the gate...mobile service here for the last couple of weeks has been nearly zero.
"I wouldn't want to live anywhere else...but talking to other people, a lot of rural people, they're all experiencing similar things."
A Telstra spokesperson said coverage can be impacted by a range of factors including distance from a tower, the type of handset being used, if people are using a boosting device, hills and valleys, tall trees or structures and building materials.
"In general, the Telstra road coverage between Nebo and Mackay is reasonable for the majority of the distance, much better if people are using a boosting device," the spokesperson said.
"If continuous connectivity is important when travelling, we encourage people to purchase an external aerial and mobile boosting device.
"For people that live in an area of poor or no coverage, we also encourage them to buy an external booster and an aerial."
The spokesperson said demand for data increases by 30 per cent each year.
"Currently Telstra is upgrading one of our three mobile base station sites in Nebo to bring better 4G coverage to the area. The works required are significant and to do that we need to take the site off air for periods of time to replace equipment."
Telstra regional engagement manager in Queensland Michael Dwan said current works should be completed by March 16.
"If residents have access to a Wi-Fi signal at home, Telstra encourages the use of Wi-Fi calling. This is a free setting on most popular mobile phones and allows your mobile to use a Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls, SMS and access data," Mr Dwan said.
An Isaac Regional Council spokesperson said the region has recently experienced significant and consistent wet weather.
"This is causing a number of issues on our road network. Our sealed roads are experiencing an increase in the number of potholes and the unsealed network is experiencing increased rutting from heavy vehicles driving on saturated pavements and water inundation," the spokesperson said.
"Council has prioritised our internal crews and additional contractors to get out there and repair the network but it will take time to cover all roads. We are consistently inspecting and re-prioritising the repairs based on assessed safety risk of the defects."
