Walpole Community Resource Telecentre
(Inc)
 

Our incredible journey ....

Walpole Telecentre (Inc) was officially opened on 28th January 1995 by the Hon. Paul Omodei, MLA and the Hon. Monty House, MLA. The Telecentre was initially housed in a Single Mens' Quarters, kindly loaned, rent free, by Dept. Conservation and Land Management, Walpole.   By March 1996 it was evident that serious upgrading of marketing and management strategies were required if the Telecentre was to continue its' operations.

On the appointment in October 1996 of Jennifer Willcox to the position of Coordinator the Walpole Telecentre merged with Denmark Telecentre, under the name of South Coast Telecentres (Inc).   In November 1996 the Telecentre relocated to the Vista Centre in Vista Street, Walpole, a Shire of Manjimup owned building, previously used by the Infant Health Nurse, Meals on Wheels and a Kindergarten.

By June, 1997 Jennifer had developed the Walpole Telecentre into a thriving and profitable Telecentre, allowing for the dissolution of the merger with Denmark Telecentre.  It was then that Walpole Community Resource Telecentre (Inc) was born.

Since that time Walpole Community Resource Telecentre (Inc) has flourished under the passionate, bordering on obsessive, management of Jennifer, with keen support and assistance from the Management Committees of the day.  New and innovative initiatives were introduced following a sound marketing campaign, which continue to be enhanced each year.

On January 26th, 2001, Australia Day, Jennifer was presented with the Citizen of the Year Award for Walpole, within the Shire of Manjimup, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the development of the Walpole Telecentre, which is now  a vital facility in this remote and rural small town in Western Australia.

In 2000 a Collocation Committee was formed to oversee the feasibility of a three part project in upgrading the Walpole Community Centre; to relocate the Walpole Public Library to the then current Lesser Hall and to build a new Telecentre/Rural Transaction Centre. 

Walpole Public Library was the first part of the project to be completed with the opening being held in July 2004.  The Community Centre was closed for twelve months while extensive internal upgrading took place.

Architectural plans were drawn up for the new Telecentre building and a number of applications lodged with various funding sources.  The Collocation project had the support and backing of the Shire of Manjimup.  It was envisaged the new building would be completed by mid 2004, but due to a number of issues it was not done so until March 2005.

The official opening was on 20th April 2005 when the Hon. Geoff Prosser, Federal Member for Forrest, cut the ribbon.

And now, here we are in 2009, already having outgrown our wonderful building so industrious were we in acquiring new services and growing and improving existing ones, that we have acknowledged the need to expand.  Consequently we have lodged applications for funding with Great Southern Development Commission and South West Development Commission in order to extend the building on the north side to provide additional office space and a much larger meeting room.  With the Royalties for Regions program it is envisaged the current meeting room will be used to house government services.