Optus proudly supports the Yarrabah Music and Cultural Festival

The Yarrabah Music and Cultural Festival is a massively important event for the Yarrabah and surrounding communities in far north Queensland. It's a bustling hub of creativity, with First Nations musicians artists and creatives coming together to celebrate and uplift an incredible community and culture – and it's an event that Optus is proud to get behind.

We love the Yarrabah community and this isn’t the first time we have supported the Music and Culture Festival. Our relationship started with connectivity where in 2025 Optus commissioned Indara to acquire and build a new telecommunications tower at Yarrabah South as part of the Mobile Black Spot Program Round 4. In July 2026, we commissioned Yarrabah artists on Gunggandji Country to produce an incredible piece of artwork representing community, the ocean and the flow of knowledge between Elders and the next generation. You can see the artwork in our latest Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.

Backing our First Nations communities with strong digital safety engagement is something we're extremely proud to do, with the guidance of our award-winning Digital Thumbprint program and a group of on the ground experts, including retail staff from Optus Cairns Central and Optus Queensland General Manager Dave Morrisey.

“For Optus, supporting the Yarrabah Music and Arts Festival is about much more than sponsoring an event. It is about connecting with First Nations communities from across Far North Queensland, celebrating and preserving culture, and sharing time with family and the wider community,” Dave Morrisey said.

“Technology plays an important role in keeping local communities connected, and the festival also gave us an opportunity to share practical messages about scam awareness and staying safe online. We are proud to stand alongside the Yarrabah community and support an event that brings people together through culture, music and connection.”

We wanted to support the Yarrabah community and attendees to the Music and Cultural Festival with important information on scam prevention. Australians lose millions of dollars to scams every year. Staying scam aware is everyone's business, and it's so important to know how scammers are targeting Australians from all walks of life.

Important lessons on scam prevention

Scams can hide in everyday online messages, games, offers and conversations. Scams can happen to anyone. It is never your fault.

Scams take all kinds of forms, but often they appear to good to be true. Scammers can appear to be buyers or sellers to steal your money, use relationships to trick you, offer jobs that seem low effort and high paying, or utilise AI and deepfakes to appear legitimate. They could offer investment opportunities, or opportunities to gamble with the opportunity of a payout that never comes. But three simple steps can help us all, Stop, Check, Protect.

We've got an easy-to-read factsheet on all of this, but if you're after more information, you can find it on our Scam Prevention page. We also recommend reading up on the important digital safety information on the Digital Thumbprint website.

Supporting First Nations communities

At Optus, we believe that with a little help there's always a way. We're proud to get behind First Nations communities with important information on digital safety and protection, and we had a great time at the Yarrabah Music and Cultural Festival.

We’ll be heading to the Koori Knockout this October long weekend to offer a lot of the same support, and to get behind First Nations community-led events that bring families together for moments that matter.