A recent NRMA report has revealed Coonamble, Walgett, Bourke and Brewarrina all had significant road infrastructure backlogs after years of shortfall, bringing the spotlight onto how far recent government funding announcements will go towards fixing our region's flood-damaged roads. 

The NRMA's "Fix Our Broken Roads: NSW Infrastructure" report also said Gilgandra and Narromine shires have serious infrastructure backlogs. 

The report covers only the period up until June 2021 so, with the most recent period of extensive flood damage hitting western councils hard, reveals just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the millions needed to bring roads back to reasonable standard.

The NRMA also not released compiled call-out data for this most recent period but it has said that callouts state-wide for pothole related damage to vehicles doubled in the 12 months up to July 2022 compared with the previous year. 

The "Fix Our Broken Roads" report indicates Coonamble has biggest amount of road infrastructure work needed in our region, followed by Walgett.  

Infrastructure shortfalls as of July 2021 according to the NRMA in some western plains shires:

• Brewarrina – $1.3 million 
• Bourke - $800,000 
• Narromine $700,000 
• Gilgandra $100,000 

  Funding Question Marks 

Given this was an existing backlog before the 2022 floods damaged roads across the region, questions remain about how far recent funding will go. 

This year the NSW Nationals has said the coalition state government "will deliver a record $10 billion investment into regional roads and transport in 2022-23".  

The biggest funding announcement since the region's floods was on 3 January when the NSW Government said it was dedicating $500 million (of which $280 million is available to regional councils) to road repair around the state.   

The mayors of both Gilgandra and Narromine told the Western Plains App they were "pleased and very happy" with the announcement and hoped to get a few million dollars to fix potholes in their respective regions. 

Mayor of Gilgandra Shire, Doug Batten told the Western Plains App the total cost of fixing road damage from the floods in his region "was between eight and 20 million dollars". 

Narromine Mayor Craig Davies said “he was very grateful for this contribution from the state Government” and that the money could also be used for flood betterment schemes such as bridges. 

However, Jenny Aitchison Shadow Minister for Regional Transport and Roads told the Western Plains App that like many rural areas, so little funding had been available over previous years and was generally made available through “piecemeal” and competitive grants processes, that local councils were left with no choice but to express gratitude for the small amounts they do receive. 

ABOVE: Jenny Aitchinson: Source: NSW Parliament 

When announcing the $500 million injection the State government said it “was for flood affected roads”. However, with every council able to bid for the money, it is not clear what the size of these individual grants will be.

The Government has already said about 56% of the funds would go to regional shires. 

The $500 million package will not be rolled out on the basis of road repair need or extent of road damage, but will be calculated on the number of kilometers of roads the councils manage - whether or need those kilometers need road repairs.

The funding follows a round of the Local Roads Pothole Repair Program round that saw $50 million divided between 94 councils.

The NRMA report shows that even before any of last year’s floods the infrastructure backlogs across the state totaled $2.1 billion and regional areas are disproportionately represented on a per population basis. 

Late last year, Narromine Shire Council received $4 million from the NSW Governments Resources for Regions Program which the council said would be partially used to build roads.  While Walgett Shire Council received $2 million in emergency funding from the NSW Government for urgent road repairs. 

According to the NRMA regional road infrastructure shortfalls made up 45% of the state's infrastructure backlogs before last year's flooding. 

Government Defends Roads Record 

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway told the Western Plains App in a statement that “Recent extreme weather events have caused havoc on our road and transport network and I’ve heard loud and clear from impacted communities and local councils while travelling the state that their main priority is to repair and re-open roads”. 

Farraway pointed to the January 3 announcement and that he had previously announced “$312.5 million in joint funding from the NSW and Commonwealth Government to ensure roads, bridges and rail assets damaged by floods are repaired or rebuilt and their resilience bolstered”. 

Labor’s Jenny Aitchison told the Western Plains App that the Government lacked a strategic plan for regional roads and was handing inadequate sums of money in “fits and starts”. 

Labor is yet to announce its regional roads policy or commit to filling any road funding blackholes. 

ABOVE: Sam Farraway. Picture: Linkedin.