That’s according to the Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2017, a joint research report from Telstra, pollsters Roy Morgan and RMIT and Swinburne universities.

Roy Morgan used its own boundaries to map out digital inclusion across Australia, appearing to put Ararat in a ‘South West Victoria’ region with Warrnambool, Colac and Hamilton.

Stawell is just across the border in a ‘North West Victoria’ region with Horsham and Mildura.

Both the North West and West Victoria regions scored below the state and national average for internet access, affordability, and residents’ digital skills.

The West Victoria region scored higher in all major categories than the rural Victorian average, but North West fell behind in terms of access and digital skills.

The categories are combined into a single score to assess each region’s digital inclusion.

“While Western Victoria’s scores have steadily improved since 2014, reaching 54.1 in 2017, it is concerning to see that Northern Victoria’s score has declined,” the digital inclusion report stated. 

“Eastern Victoria’s has stagnated, and North Western Victoria’s improvement has not kept pace with the state average.

”Overall, Victoria’s Capital–Country gap is the largest of all states, with rural residents recording a 2017 score 17 per cent lower than their Melbourne-based counterparts.”

North West Victoria’s data allowances, which is the amount of web pages, videos and images that can be downloaded without incurring slower speeds and extra charges, were significantly below average.

The figures also showed that North West Victoria residents paid about the same as other regions but for an inferior service, leading to lower affordability scores.

Residents in both West and North West Victoria were less involved in using technology for “accessing content, communication, transactions, commerce, media, and information” than the average.

IN October, telecommunications provider Optus announced a deal with the state government to co-fund dozens of mobile phone and internet towers in Victoria, including at Pomonal and Deep Lead.

Stawell will see 3400 homes connected to the National Broadband Network’s Fibre-to-the-Node wired service in the first half of 2018.

Ararat homes will start connecting to the wired NBN from April to September, with homes and businesses near High and Barkly streets being offered the faster Fibre-to-the-Curb technology.

Across Victoria, people who were unemployed, living with a disability, on low incomes, or near or above pension age or had left school early were less likely to have internet access and digital skills.

People with a disability had seen their internet access become less affordable over times they tended to live on fixed incomes.