Gibb River and Tanami roads touted as alternative routes to get freight into East Kimberley as costs soar

Skyrocketing freight costs have led to calls for the unsealed Gibb River and Tanami roads to be urgently upgraded to get goods into the East Kimberley, which has been cut off from the rest of the State by the one-in-100 year flood. Although the East Kimberley remains untouched by the flooding that caused so much destruction in the Central and West Kimberley, livelihoods and businesses are now at stake with sealed roads to the west coast cut off. Businesses and growers are reporting freight costs have doubled and even tripled as road trains are forced to drive an extra 2000km from Perth through South Australia and the Northern Territory to bring goods into the East Kimberley. The Great Northern Highway, the only sealed road into the East Kimberley, has been closed since New Year’s Day when ex-tropical cyclone Ellie began her destruction over the Central Kimberley, filling rainfall gauges to more than 800mm in 24 hours. Ellie dumped so much water the Fitzroy River Bridge was partially destroyed by the raging torrent, cutting off the East Kimberley by sealed road. Western Roads Federation CEO Cam Dumesny said all options to find alternative road routes needed to be considered, including improving the unsealed Gibb River Road which reaches the East Kimberley from the west or the dirt Tanami Road, which runs northwest through the Northern Territory to Halls Creek. Mr Dumesny said the Great Central Road, which runs from Laverton in WA to Yulara in the Northern Territory, should also be considered. “All options need to be on the table. We have alternative road routes into the East Kimberley; put repair crews on the Great Central and Tanami roads so we can get into Halls Creek faster,” he said. “Unfortunately the Kimberley is now in two pieces. We have a response phase in the west but we need to sustain and protect the East Kimberley while the bridge is out.” A temporary bridge connecting Fitzroy Crossing with the eastern Kimberley could be constructed in as little as four months — once a location is selected and water levels have dropped — but Main Roads believes a permanent replacement will take up to two years to design and build. ADF engineers joined their Main Roads counterparts on the ground in Fitzroy Crossing on Thursday to assess a third option: whether it was possible to repair the partly collapsed Fitzroy River Bridge. Main Roads WA operations director Peter Sewell said mending the bridge — the only road connection between the east and west Kimberley — would only be a short-term solution and that a full replacement would be required regardless. At the same time — and also as a stopgap — Main Roads is examining building a new “low-level crossing” capable of carrying triple road trains and up to 170 tonnes in weight. That crossing would be established “as close as possible upstream” from the damaged Fitzroy River Bridge, with construction to take “about four months” once floodwaters receded enough to determine the best site. However, Mr Sewell confirmed any low-level crossing would be unusable whenever water levels along the Fitzroy River rose, a frequent occurrence during wet season. Mr Dumesny said the Federal Government also needed to provide freight subsidies for businesses stung by huge increases in transport costs. “They are going to need some form of Federal subsidy if this bridge is not going to be in place for a couple of years,” he said. Mining and Pastoral Region MP Neil Thomson said the situation was becoming dire for some growers in the East Kimberley who were contracted to get produce to market in Perth. “If they don’t get this east-west road up very soon, you are going to have growers going to the wall,” he said. “A pallet of goods to Kununurra has doubled; that is going to have an impact on everything from food supplies to agricultural supplies and it will also have an impact upon the price of fuel.” He said road crews should begin immediately grading the Gibb River Road and the Australian Defence Force should be deployed to build a Bailey bridge at Fitzroy Crossing. A Bailey bridge is a portable structure used by troops during World War II. “It would be difficult but possible. That would deal with lighter traffic,” Mr Thomson said. He said it was fortunate the Port of Wyndham existed, which exports live cattle, farming produce and mined products from the region, as well as bringing in diesel and ammonium nitrate. A spokesperson for Federal Emergency Minister Murray Watt told the Kimberley Echo any questions about freight subsidies should be directed to the State Government as it would respond to request for assistance from them. Acting Transport Minister Sue Ellery said the damage to road and bridge infrastructure in the Kimberley had been catastrophic. “Reconnecting the Great Northern Highway is one of our government’s top priorities and Main Roads is putting in place plans and assessing a range of options to make sure that happens as quickly as possible,” she said. “Main Roads engineers have been on the ground in Fitzroy Crossing this week and are currently considering a range of temporary bridge options that can be put in place while longer term works are undertaken on the existing bridge, which has been severely damaged. “Once Main Roads has properly assessed the temporary bridge options and likely timeframes for the delivery, the government will be in a better position to understand the ongoing impacts and will consider what further measures could be put in place to support the movement of freight through the region.” Main Roads is also assessing the Gibb River Road, which received significant flood damage. In better news, Mr Sewell said Great Northern Highway between Broome and Port Hedland had now opened to all trucks and four-wheel drives and he expected light vehicles would be permitted back on the road by Friday or Saturday. The road between Derby and Fitzroy Crossing also re-opened to four-wheel drives and trucks on Wednesday and was expected to be capable of accommodating light vehicles “within a couple of days”. But big sections of road near the Willare Bridge — which connects Derby to Broome — remain under deep and fast-flowing waters, with at least 10km of the span sustaining heavy damage. “We’re talking hundreds of hundreds of kilometres of water inland that hasn’t come through that system yet so (our inspectors) are not expecting to even get access there for at least another week,” Mr Sewell said. He estimated it would take “at least” six weeks before that section of road could re-open but cautioned the eventual timeframe could be even longer.