Rage over condition of roads
AFTER living in Tara for almost 22 years, David Parry is convinced the roads across the Western Downs have never been in worse condition.
“It’s only a matter of time before we have a serious fatality take place out here,” he said.
“We have cars coming off the road all the time, people ending up in trees, fences and paddocks after losing control on these shoddy roads, it’s a wonder someone hasn’t died out here already with the condition they’re in,” he said.
Mr Parry said since amalgamation in 2008 the condition of most of the unsealed roads across the region have greatly deteriorated.
“Prior to 2008 our roads were fully graded four times a year, now they are only done every 12 months with a bit of patch grading in between,” he said.
“Worse yet, council’s road workers just throw gravel down without using a water truck or roller so as soon as we get anywhere between 5-10mm of rain, it’s all washed away into the surrounding paddocks.”
Mr Parry said he had written to WDRC and tried to bring his concerns up with councillors and the mayor on several different occasions over the years only to be shut down.
“Council keep telling me these roads are up to par with their current standards and that the annual grading is in line with their maintenance strategy,” he said.
“But many of the residents around Tara and the rest of the Downs are convinced this simply isn’t good enough and that more regular road work needs to be carried out before someone loses their life.”
A WDRC spokeswoman said council undertakes a comprehensive road maintenance
and upgrade program and in 2021 and 2022 is delivering a $45.5 million program across the region to improve road infrastructure.
“In 2020 and 2021 council spent $11.6 million maintaining and improving roads in the Tara area alone,” the spokeswoman said.
“Western Downs Regional Council is home to the largest road network (7,668 kilometres) across Queensland, in addition the Western Downs
region also contains approximately 1,800 kilometres of roads controlled by the State Government.
“Council has a consistent approach to all roads across the region and inspect and maintain these accordingly, irrespective of where the road is located in the region.”
Mr Parry said the problem wasn’t confined to the unsealed roads around Tara either.
“All of the smaller towns in
the Western Downs are being neglected, all of the gravel roads around Dulacca and Pelican are bad – just about everywhere with gravel roads is being neglected,” he said.
“At a bare minimum, these roads need to be graded three times a year and additional culverts and water diversion systems need to be installed so that when we get a bit of rain, half the bloody road doesn’t end up washing onto someone’s paddock.”