Fight for Range funds

Mareeba mayor’s concern as link left out

IT has been 80 years since Mareeba Mayor Tom Gilmore’s uncle carried out surveying work that helped bring about the backbreaking construction of the Kuranda Range road.

Jackhammers, dynamite and bulldozers – a brand new technology when construction started in 1940 – were the tools of the trade for about 100 men who built the mountain crossing over the space of about a year.

The road has served its purpose remarkably well but, 80 years on, Cr Gilmore says it desperately needs investment. “We will have it,” he said. “We’re not going to back off.”

The State Government this week announced $43 million funding to upgrade key intersections, install wide centre line treatments, safety barriers and audio tactile lines on roads between Cairns and Mareeba.

However a further breakdown reveals that money will be spent in its entirety between the top of the range and the town of Mareeba.

“I’m very pleased indeed that they’ve identified areas of concern that have been obvious to the community for a long, long time,” Cr Gilmore said.

“There are a couple of very bad intersections there that they have identified and plan to fix.

“I’m quite sure my community, who use that road on a regular basis, will be thrilled to bits to see that fixed.”

The $43 million investment is nothing to be scoffed at and Cr Gilmore said the measures had his full support.

However, he wanted to make sure the biggest safety and transport issue between Mareeba and Cairns was not pushed to one side. even if it took a Federal Government in election mode to step in.

He argued the State Government’s professed option of choice – variable speed limits – would not suffice.

“Every day there is a new development of some kind that will depend on the Kuranda Range road,” he said.

“It cannot be swept under the carpet – and we won’t let it be.”