It goes without saying that this institution has a fabulous collection of artwork and other historical artefacts and that it has a long positive history of art events and exhibitions.

Recent letters on this subject have documented this. The reason I am writing is to express my dismay at the way this has unfolded.

It seems that places like art falleries, even ones that have been in existence for over a century, now have to pay their way.  Any social or cultural function or aspirations that may have had now seem to be irrelevant. 

Unless they put on large-scale fashion shows or other ‘popular’ events that bring in paying ‘customers’ they can expect economic rationalists to say they need to close down if don’t pay their way.  Are we going to apply this same logic to parks and gardens, public toilets, seats, football ovals, play equipment and other things that our rates and taxes currently pay for?

I’m thinking that is unlikely. Art galleries were instituted originally with the cultural objective of providing communities with some awareness and appreciation of the arts.  They were also a meeting point for community social interaction.  I visit a number of art galleries and I have chosen to be a member of different galleries at various times. 

I am confident that the people of Castlemaine, who have a strong arts community in their town, will respond to this closure and ensure that Castlemaine Art Gallery will open again as soon as possible.

My reply to Kasey Ellison, NBN corporate affairs advisor (“Make providers first call”, July 27) is if he or she had read my previous letters, it would have been noted that I have had numerous visits to the Telstra agency at Kangaroo Flat notifying them of the faults occurring.

On several occasions I have been in contact with the Telstra complaints department in Melbourne. The complaints were acknowledged. I had two conversations with a man and a woman but nothing eventuated from these. During this period, I had several people discussing the same problems that I was having and asking for advice. I was also in contact with a member of Team Telstra. Again nothing eventuated.

After explaining to Telstra reps at Kangaroo Flat that I was missing some important phone calls, I was given a small mobile phone which had been programmed for calls to my home phone to be transferred to the mobile, which was on loan from Telstra.

I made several calls to Melbourne and contacted a lady who arranged a technician to come to my house to check for faults. One fault was found and rectified. I also contacted the technician to inform him that I would be home. Follow up calls and leaving messages went unanswered.

As my phone was not working most of the phone calls were done by my son using his mobile phone, other calls were made using my home phone which was rarely, as it was not working.

However, after nearly six months of faults both the internet on the computer and the home phone are now working. The last dropout was July 11. Seventeen days free of faults. There has been no contact or information as to how this has occurred.

This morning I had a phone call from a 80-year-old man who has had the same problems as I have, and he informed me that his wife had a heart attack yesterday and that he was so grateful that his NBN and phone had not dropped out and that he was able to get the ambulance to transport her to hospital for treatment. His emphasis was that the danger of a drop-out and not being able to get the ambulance could have cost a life. Being 83 years old, I think that I have done as much as I could have and that Telstra should have been aware after my repeated calls for help and notified NBN.