Grey nomads hitting the Strzelecki and Oodnadatta tracks in the weeks ahead should find themselves in for a much smoother ride.
The South Australian Government has just spent $770,000 on a prime loader and side tipper to help remote road repair gangs service the.iconic outback routes.
Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan told the ABC that the Government spent $18 million a year on maintaining and improving unsealed outback roads, and that the new machines would be a big help.
However, one outback MP says more still needs to be done. The Member for Stuart, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, says bigger trailers are needed in order to make a round trip for maintenance more financially viable, and points to the side tippers used in Queensland.
“The two new pieces of equipment that the government is providing will certainly be an improvement on the out-of-date equipment that the people who work on these road gangs have been using for many, many years,” he said. “But certainly we won’t reach the efficiencies that people doing the exact same work in Queensland have done.”
Hey, if they are maintained too well, it will take the excitement and challenge away from trip.
It’s the out back what do we expect? Please don’t take the adventure out of the Out back.
so we will soon see the Ford Falcon 2 wd on our greatest out back tracks,
I will stay away from Queen street, they must stay away from “Tracks”
Please leave well alone.
It’s a difficult discussion, some of us who have traveled these tracks did so looking for the adventure and can see that excitement of them might be lost to us. Maintaining the tracks will open them up to others, some might say thats a good thing for tourism but would more traffic lead to more damage? That last thing we want is for them to loose their Outback appeal and them become unmade highways, with Big4’s and jumping castles and nowhere we can light a campfire.
Has anyone ever for one moment thought that these roads are graded and maintained for the rate payers in these remote areas.who really cares if you can’t get a enough corregations, spare a thought for those who haven’t got a good road to go to town