Road closure anger

Carnarvon pastoral stations look set to lose Shire support in maintaining secondary access roads, with narrowly-won votes at last week’s council meeting to close two station roads setting a precedent for further road closure.

The closures are controversial, with one lessee producing a petition signed by more than 350 people to keep a road open, and another affected lessee preparing to meet State departmental and political representatives in trying to challenge Council’s action.

Motions were voted on at the meeting to close a 17.7km stretch of Meeragoolia Road, and to close the 25.46km Warroora North Road.

In both cases, this was because the Shire is only obliged to provide one access road to the homestead of each station, with the agenda stating keeping the roads open “sets a precedent that would lend legitimacy to possible claims from other pastoral station lease holders for council to maintain additional accesses to their homesteads.”

The issue took hold of the near three-hour council meeting from the start, with two public submissions on the matter.

A substantive motion to revisit the closure of Meeragoolia Road’s southern end after a council audit of all pastoral roads within the Shire failed.

The vote was tied, at four in favour, four against, but Shire president Karl Brandenburg used a casting vote in favour of the officer’s recommendation to close the road.

This was replicated in the final vote on Meeragoolia Road, with Mr Brandenburg’s casting vote endorsing road closure.

This means a 35-day consultation and submission process will occur; council may then resolve to formally request the Minister for Lands close the road.

With one councillor leaving the meeting after this vote, passing a motion to close Warroora North road was less difficult — the vote came in at four in support, three against.

Shire president Karl Brandenburg said the votes tied into a broader picture.

“The whole exercise is about asset management, which is well underway — all roads are being assessed under asset management we’re currently undertaking,” he said.

The Shire’s director of infrastructure found maintaining the southern stretch of Meeragoolia Road cost $5500 per year, and that reconstructing the road back to council standard would cost an estimated $440,000.

He likewise found maintaining Warroora North Road cost between $15,000 and $20,000 per year.

Warroora Station lessee Leonie McLeod produced the aforementioned petition, which the agenda stated was “predicated on the false assumption that closure of the road will prohibit the use of the road which is not the case.”

Ms McLeod rejected statements in the agenda that the Shire was subsidising her tourism business by maintaining Warroora North Road, which provides easy access to the popular 14 Mile camp-site.

“I’d put it to them, that every penny that’s spent on every road in the municipality goes toward businesses — every penny subsidises a business,” she said.

“It’s denying ordinary people, low-income earners, an opportunity to enjoy world heritage — it’s $37.50 per week to camp at 14 Mile, which is a lot cheaper than at a caravan park.”

Ms McLeod said it was too early to tell whether the station would maintain the road through its own funds, and said rain on the southern access road’s clay soils make it impassable.

The Shire cited the owners of Meeragoolia and Callagiddy Stations, which have direct frontage to the southern stretch of Meeragoolia Road, were receptive to closing the road.

But neighbouring lessee Shane Aylmore, who said he had no consultation over the matter and only found out about, at the meeting, likewise said the main access road to his station was impassable in wet weather, making Meeragoolia Road the only means to leave the station if a flood came through.

Mr Aylmore, who operates an adventure and shooting tourism business on Ella Valla station, said the effect on the local economy would be negative.

“All you’re doing is cutting back on tourism — if people come into our station through main access road south of Carnarvon, and go out that way, they won’t go to town and won’t spend money.

“We advise people to come in the southern way, spend time with us, then head back up through Meeragoolia Road, stop in at Rocky Pool, then go to town for a pub meal — we won’t be able to do that if this goes ahead.

“I would have expected the Shire would support us in this — our clients are all from out of town, they bring money into town.

“I’m disgusted that the Shire has had no consultation — if you’re going to do something as serious as closing a road, you have to write to everyone.

“The pastoral industries are hurting enough as it is, people are going to need to diversify their incomes, largely through tourism, so shutting these secondary access roads and disturbing the road network is a bad idea.”

Mr Aylmore said he will be taking the issue up with the Department of Lands and other governmental bodies and representatives.