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Advance Cairns hijacks web names
DIGITAL battle lines have been drawn between Advance Cairns and a new rival trying to muscle in on its turf.
It was the corporate equivalent of publicly dakking the new kid at school and Enterprise North president Kevin Byrne was caught with his pants around his ankles.
The strange online saga began on Monday when Advance Cairns deputy chairman Richard Ireland picked up the Cairns Post.
“Rival voice for FNQ: Former Advance Cairns chief launches new advocacy group,” the front page roared.
It was the first anyone in the Advance Cairns leadership had heard of their former CEO’s enterprising scheme.
Mr Ireland logged on to his computer to investigate the new splinter group but discovered all of its obvious domain names were available for just $20 for two-year ownership.
Mr Byrne got a nasty surprise when he tried to buy both enterprisenorth.com.au and enterprisenorth.net.au on Wednesday.
Both titles had already been snaffled up under the name Advance Cairns Limited.
In an email to his backers, Mr Byrne characterised the online squatting as pointless and a “mean-spirited waste of member funds”. He described the hiccup as “just a blip” and has since parked the enterprisenorth.org.au address after receiving the Office of Fair Trading’s confirmation that the group’s incorporation would proceed.
Mr Ireland was revelling in the caper yesterday.
“Kevin can have one for nothing if he likes,” he said. “For 20 bucks, who cares. “It was a bit of sport.
“You’ve got to have some fun in business these days, otherwise it’s all a bit hard.”
Mr Byrne considered the whole situation quite weird.
“It’s bizarre and embarrass- ing,” he said. “We welcome the interest from Advance Cairns but we’re not going to respond to that sort of puerile behaviour.”
Advance Cairns CEO Nick Trompf said he was unaware of the website wars when initially contacted by the Cairns Post.
After some research, he discovered Mr Ireland was the mischief-maker.
“It was quite amazing to go there and find there’s no website registered,” he said. “I think that says enough.” Mr Byrne said he had needed to register Enterprise North as an association before parking the domain to keep the group’s book work in order.
Incorporating an association in Queensland requires seven members or more – at least six of whom remain a mystery for now.
WE WELCOME THE INTEREST FROM ADVANCE CAIRNS BUT WE’RE NOT GOING TO RESPOND TO THAT SORT OF PUERILE BEHAVIOUR