Locals petition: Plea to open Barrington Road

LOCAL Barrington Tops resident Cath Payne is one of many local residents who are desperate to get the Barrington Forest Road reopened between Scone and Gloucester, saving residents hours in travel, restoring the vital link with coastal tourism to the area and is alarmed at drivers who are driving on the currently closed road not realising the incredible danger.

Cath Payne has started an ePetition on the New South Wales Government website, for the Legislative Assembly to immediately finance the Forestry Corporation to fix road and encourages all residents of New South Wales to support the petition.

The Forestry Corporation closed the Barrington Forest Road between Cobark Park and Honeysuckle picnic areas on March 23, after heavy rain caused “major structural damage.”

Currently, there is no access road from Gloucester to Scone and no re-opening date, with Forestry Corp stating, “we are working as quickly as we can to assess the extent of damage and develop a repair program and have engaged engineers to assist.”

Cath Payne said she had trouble speaking with Forestry representatives about the ePetition, which was lodged in favour of financially assisting the corporation.

“What I understand from talking to National Parks and the Forestry Corp press releases, because they’re very reluctant to speak to me, is that the substrata is actually saturated,” Ms Payne said.

“I went and had a look at it and the two drains which are meant to shoot water out from under the road to the other side of the road, they’ve been blocked because they’ve been dug out recently,” she said.

“It’s a section of road which has always had landslips on the southern side, because it’s cut into the northern side of the hill, so I’m guessing the hilly side of the road is quite unstable at the moment. At the end of the day, if it is saturated, it will be quite a difficult thing to fix,” she said.

“Forestry either haven’t got the money or the resources, or both. They’ve said they have no income because all of the forests that were burnt during the bushfires. They’ve had to clear out thousands of acres of burnt timber and now have to plant all of these seedlings to generate income.

“If we need them to throw every at fixing the road, they need to have cash to throw at it,” said Ms Payne.

Ms Payne, who lives approximately four kilometres from the blocked road, is one of many residents who now have to drive in the opposite direction and bypass Scone, Aberdeen, Muswellbrook and Singleton to get to coastal locations.

Already, she has witnessed snow goers ignore the road closure signs, only to become stuck amongst fallen trees.

“We live right at the top, about four kilometres away from the turn off towards Pheasants Creek. Effectively, the road closure is in the National Park directly behind us, so it doesn’t affect us coming to Scone, but it does affect us going to the coast,” Ms Payne said.

“For example, next weekend we have to fly out of Newcastle and we’ll have to drive all the way around, which will add hours to the trip,” she said.

“That’s the issue for everybody who lives here, but from a tourism point of view, the road really is a financial lifeblood. If you can’t go down a road and out the other end, you don’t go down it,” she said.

“There are signs out at Arrowfield saying the road is blocked, having said that, there are still four-wheel drivers trying to use the road.

“People have gotten stuck because there are fallen trees across the road. One couple drove around the end of the barricade and tried to drive down another forestry trail and got stuck there for two days,” said Ms Payne.

Upper Hunter Shire Mayor Maurice Collison has supported the ePetition and is sympathetic towards those affected by the road closure.

“We can see the frustration, we’ve been through it ourselves and we’ve got an economy all the way from the coast to this area,” Cr Collison said.

“We’ve been on site with the Forestry Corporation. We’ve spoken to Dave Layzell and other parties in the Government. I know the Forestry has said this is their highest priority and David Layzell is certainly aware of the road,” he said.

“I’ve offered to take him up the there to have a decent look at it, whatever we can do to get that road open,” he said.

General Manager Greg McDonald said Council has also sent letters to the Minister for Forestry, Adam Marshall and Deputy Premier John Barilaro asking for a temporary bypass road.

“In short, they [Forestry Corp] can’t do anything during the winter season because of the thawing and freezing of the ground water, it’s too dangerous for them to do that,” Mr McDonald said.

“We’ve asked them if they can do a bypass road, which is something their engineers need to investigate and we need to wait for. If nothing can be done, they’re saying it could be November before they turn their mind to it,” he said.

“They need money to do it and have a very low budget for road maintenance, so they will need the State Government to come to the party and assist with that,” he said.

Yesterday, Deputy Premier John Barilaro confirmed he is awaiting a response from Mr Marshall to create an alternative route around the closed road area, which if implemented, will be used as a short-term solution until major works can be undertaken.

“Hopefully we’ll get some traction, through friends, Council and our local Member David Layzell. Interestingly, in the by-election he said focusing on local roads would be his baby, so we’ll see what happens,” said Cath Payne.

To help get the Barrington Forest Road opened, please sign the ePetition: click here.

Petition fast facts:

• ePetitions with more than 20,000 signatures will be announced by the Speaker and scheduled for debate in the House.
• A copy of every petition received is forwarded to the Minister responsible for the subject contained in the petition.
• Ministers are required to lodge, with the Clerk, a response to a petition signed by 500 or more persons. The response must be received within 35 calendar days from the date a petition is received. The response is also reported in the House and published in the Votes and Proceedings and Hansard.