Outback communities are readying themselves for a hoped-for grey nomad influx as roads dry out following recent torrential rain.
The entire length of the Birdsville Track has now reopened for four-wheel-drives and most of the Oodnadatta and Strzelecki Tracks are again passable.
Phil Gregurke from the Mungaranie Hotel on the Birdsville Track told the ABC the official outback tourist season was about to start in South Australia, with opening of the Simpson Desert region for travellers, and it was a relief to see the roads open again.
“We’re just getting a little bit short on a few little items up here because we haven’t had a proper delivery for three weeks now, but as soon as the transport’s up here, yep, it’s all go,” he said.
Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads says it is doing everything within its power to ensure remote flood-damaged roads in western parts of the state can be rebuilt quickly.
Rebuilding work on at least six key routes through the south-west has been delayed for months by unprecedented flooding across the southern region.
Department spokeswoman Kym Murphy says work to rebuild the Diamantina Development Road between Charleville and Windorah should start in the next few weeks.
She says the repairs are funded under the joint state and Federal Government disaster relief fund.
“The time limit has been that all our work needs to be completed by June 2014,” she said. “We are confident to have the original program of works – our $700 million program of works in the south-west – to be delivered by then.”
The Department says the roads will also be improved so they cope better during heavy rain events.
“Out in the Quilpie Shire we have got stabilising, so we’re using existing materials and we’re adding a little bit of cement powder,” Ms Murphy told the ABC. “That’s the basis of a lot of our road network reconstruction out there.”
