The Palm Island Digital Service Centre opened in 2023, marking a significant milestone for our community. This centre provides sales and customer service for Telstra products to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers across Australia, with interpreters available for about fifty First Nations languages.
Twenty-one Palm Islanders now work at the centre, with capacity for thirty staff. Workers complete intensive training at TAFE and Telstra before taking calls, and continue studying for a Certificate III in Business while working.
There is a great sense of pride in the people working at the digital service centre which has extended across the broader community. This is a new industry for Palm Island with the potential to create exciting career pathways.
The centre is the second of its kind in Australia after Cherbourg, representing pioneering efforts in local employment and training in information technology in remote communities.
Rachel Atkinson
Palm Island, Queensland
Rachel Atkinson is the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of Palm Island Community Company, serving since 2007. A Yorta Yorta woman with a family lineage of activists — her great uncle William Cooper and cousin Sir Douglas Nicholls (first Indigenous Governor of South Australia) — Rachel holds a Bachelor of Social Work and previously led the Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Health Service (1996-2006). She transformed PICC from a single employee to 210+ staff, with 95% local employment generating $5.8M in annual wages. Rachel led the 14-year campaign that achieved full community control on September 30, 2021. She co-chairs the Queensland First Children and Families Board and Family Matters Queensland.
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