Damage to Halls Lane

Driving along the road it is easy to see that many residents who live in the area are still using what amounts to a goat track to get to their homes and properties. Residents in the area are concerned, not only how they will manage to utilise the road during harvest, but when the road will again be usable.

A stretch of road along Halls Lane measuring just under 100 meters is impassable and with high grass and the poor condition of the roadside from previous work, it is extremely difficult to get around the area to pass through the lane. Though the road isn’t a high traffic area it is an important route for many people who live there.

Director of Infrastructure for Hilltops Council, Dirk Wymer said he has received no customer service requests regarding the road, but that the road would have been inspected by council and identified for natural disaster funding.

General Manager, Anthony McMahon, said that council had assessed the region’s roads and applied for flood damage funding and was awaiting the assessment of their applications to the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS). The funding will allow council to return the roads to the state they were in before they were damaged by intense rainfall.

Funding takes time to be processed by the RMS as Hilltops Council wasn’t the only, or the worst area, to be hit with the unusual weather over winter. Once funding has been approved by the RMS, Council will be able to rectify the state of the area’s roads.

Both Anthony and Dirk said the regional roads that connect communities within the council were a main priority as they not only connect the townships within the Hilltops region, but they are also important and integral school bus routes.

Over the next month, Council will be working to fix the roads in the Murringo area as much as possible before the start of the harvest season when the roads are put under a lot of pressure with heavy vehicles.