The unusually heavy wet season up north is continuing to disrupt the travel plans of many grey nomads … not to mention the lives of local residents!
Up in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, sections of the Kalumburu Road – which leads from the Gibb River Road to the Indigenous community of Kalumburu and to the sensational Mitchell Plateau – remain closed due to severe water damage.
In normal years, tourists can travel the Mitchell Plateau and Kalumburu roads after the wet season ends, and the first opening grade has been completed, usually in May. The tourist season lasts until late October.
However, as of June 1, only the stretch of road from the Gibb River Road turn-off to Drysdale River Station was open to vehicles under 3.5 tonnes. The rest of the Kalumburu Road is closed.
An assessment by the local shire of the 280-kilometre track has revealed many kilometres of damage, with an estimated repair bill of some $4 million, money which the authority doesn’t have. They are in the process of applying for natural disaster funding.
The closure of the road is obviously a huge setback for the region’s growing tourism sector, particularly with vehicle access to Mitchell Plateau Falls currently impossible. Adventure seeking grey nomads who often choose to drop their vans and head down the rugged track in their 4WDs will perhaps have to wait for another season to check out the mythical falls.
While most parts of the Kalumburu Road will gradually reopen, it seems the road north of Theda Station could be closed for a lot longer. Indeed, Kalumburu residents have been warned they could be cut off from the rest of Western Australia until 2012.
“We probably have enough money to do maintenance grades on that road to a degree every year, but beyond Theda Station, there are severely damaged sections and many kilometres that are still underwater,” said Wyndham-East Kimberley Shire chief executive Gary Gaffney. “If we don’t get the disaster money, it’s going to take a lot longer than a year or so to fix this problem, because council does not have the funds.”
And that of course would be awful, primarily for the communities that would be left isolated for so long, but also for all of those travellers who dream of taking on a genuine challenge and revelling in the beauty of an area that only a relatively few get to see.
“There are three layers of economy that depend on this road being open,” said Mr Gaffney. “You’ve got pastoralists that need to bring cattle out, there’s a massive tourism dollar coming into the area now and that relies on this tourism trade, and also there’s the community that actually live up there .. this is a vital piece of infrastructure for the north Kimberley.”
Fingers crossed that funding can be found to fix this road as soon as possible everybody.
