Revisiting Mackay online

In the mid-1990s, when public commercial use of the Internet was in its infancy, Pace (1997) wrote a book chapter that explored the implications of this emerging technology for the regional community of Mackay in Central Queensland. The chapter entitled "Mackay Online" discussed the Internet's potential impact on regional business, education, health and entertainment. It speculated about the future rollout of a high-bandwidth data network, and it identified a special challenge for the Mackay region which had traditionally prospered from industries that control physical resources such as coal, sugar, and tourism. Two decades later, how does the reality compare with that vision