Residents of Roma Lane have given a thumbs down to the “deplorable, unsafe condition of Shire Road 103”. That’s how local farmer Alan Redfern described the state of the road at
the most recent ordinary council meeting.
Mr Redfern presented a comprehensive booklet of information and photos displaying damaged parts of the road as he made a passionate plea to councillors to fix “the quagmire that we must endure to get our kids to school; run our businesses and conduct our lives”.
He said rate-paying residents have been raising concerns about “the goat track” with council for years and he urged NSC to ‘make the necessary funds available in this coming financial year’.
“We’re desperate for our only access road to be rectified so we can get our kids to school, allow our employees to get to work, so we can run our agricultural businesses,” he said.
Mr Redfern suggested NSC representatives visit Roma Lane on a wet day to witness the “atrocious” and “four-wheel drive only” conditions that “inhibits our access and accelerates our vehicles’ deterioration”.
Roma Lane is located north of the Spring Plains Road about 40 kilometres from Narrabri township and 20km to Wee Waa.
Mr Redfern made a passionate plea to councillors to fix “the quagmire that we must endure to get our kids to school; run our businesses and conduct our lives”.
Mr Redfern was polite and respectful during his presentation to council, but his frustration was clear.
“Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today,” he said.
“This road has been neglected by council for a very long time.
“Sections of it are very dangerous,” he added.
“There are 35 residents living on the lane plus it swirls up to about 60 people during peak times.
“That’s not including employees, trucks, contractors, suppliers.
“It serves a big agricultural area of irrigated and dryland farming.
“Our family’s had a continuous connection over four generations with Roma Lane since January 1957.
“And we’ve been involved in the changing land use over that time.
“It’s flat country once you come out of the trees and drainage is everything.
“So, in the wet periods, the drainage issues of Roma Lane again raise their head.
“My late father Peter would tell us – following the big, prolonged floods of the 1970s, Roma Lane became completely inaccessible.
“And truckload, after truckload, of Bullawa Creek gravel was reversed in with council trucks, which gives Rome Lane a solid gravel base now.
“Following these major flooding events came the levee banks in the late 70s and early 80s, corresponding with the irrigation development to contain the floodwaters and minimise damage.
“The drainage problems and the corresponding rapid road deterioration have always been an issue.”
“In the wet periods of the 90s, when I was going to school, the Narrabri Shire Council installed culverts and pipelines into the irrigation channels on the eastern side of the road,” said Mr Redfern.
“However, this was not successful because the fall of the land in that area is to the west and the north, so following big rainfall events the catchment of those big farms, the channels that over spill and put more water on the roads had taken it off.
“So, the drainage became even worse.
“Consequently … nearly 20 years ago, in the late 2000s, Paul Keech – who was then director of Narrabri Shire Council engineering services in conjunction with Rob Albert from DIPNR (Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources) and the landholders, who adjoin Roma Lane, developed the drainage plan for Roma Lane.
“The works involved with landholders relocating two irrigation channels which had encroached onto the road reserve, council surveying and installation of pipelines and drainage pits.
“Cutting the tabledrains to grade to enable the runoff water to flow to the drainage pits and away into existing below ground irrigation channels on the western side of the road and resheeting the lane with quality gravel.
“At the request of council, the landholders moved their channels in 2008/9.
“After that, the Narrabri Shire Council surveyed and installed pipelines and drainage pits in roughly 2011.
“The table drains have never been cut.
“In many areas, as you’ll see in the pictures, the table drains are higher than the road itself. As a result, water pools on the road and the road surface is very significantly deteriorated. “It’s like a channel.
“The road hasn’t been resheeted in a very, very long time.
“I appreciate, just in the last week, the huge holes that have developed have had some gravel put in, but it’s a goat track.
“Since 2013, we’ve sought on site meetings with relevant council personnel, we’ve written letters to the general manager, we and many
others have lodged complaints concerning the condition of the road, we’ve offered many times since 2013 to fix the drainage issues with our own earthmoving equipment and expertise – council has repeatedly forbidden this.
“When Auscott owned ‘Togo’, they offered gravel.
“And now, AFF are offering to freight the gravel.
“We’ve been given many undertakings since 2013 that the road will be repaired.”
“I believe I can fix the drainage in two days, we’ve been waiting for nearly 20 years,” said Mr Redfern.
“The Narrabri Shire Council has told us the drainage issue exists and the road is in a very poor condition and very badly neglected.
“They’ve also made many undertakings to us that it will finish the project and rectify the road, but nothing ever happens.
“It’s now 2024, we refuse to continue to run alongside an unresolved issue.
“We’re desperate for our only access road to be rectified so we can get our kids to school, allow our employees to get to work, so we can run our agricultural businesses.”
Mr Redfern urged Narrabri Shire Council to make the necessary funds available in this coming financial year, “which we have been promised previously, and commit to picking up the baton and finishing off the council’s own project from the late 2000s”.
“There’s a couple of components to it and Eloise (NSC director infrastructure delivery) has undertaken to do some of it – we’re appreciative of that,” he said.
“But like I said, I’ve been promised it before, and it doesn’t ever materialise.
“There’s a hump missing across to connect two adjoining levee banks.
“There’s some drainage works that need doing specified in the project and then ongoing maintenance.
“The roads need to be graded up and the table drains graded out, not just the sweep over, the sweep back that the council and contractor graders currently do,” he said.
“And the last thing is resheeting Roma Lane with quality gravel.
Mr Redfern said Roma Lane serves a big agricultural area of irrigated and dryland farming. He described the road as a ‘goat track’ raising serious concerns for families, residents, agricultural professionals and workers along with unsuspecting motorists “there is not even a sign to warn people”, said Mr Redfern.
“By not paying attention to some of the smaller details, the council is not helping itself as the rural roads do not have longevity, and that’s when costs blow out.
“And there’s liability issues allowing the adjoining landholders to help with the road repairs.
“There’s also a liability for doing nothing.
“Can you please allocate the necessary funding to resheet Roma Lane with quality gravel. Thank you.”
Mayor Darrell Tiemens thanked Mr Redfern for his “time and excellent presentation”.
“We’ll have discussions about that, I can assure you,” said Cr Tiemens.
The booklet Mr Redfern presented to councillors, NSC representatives and attendees at the meeting featured several photos of Roma Lane’s poor conditions, especially after wet weather.
It also included a letter from Mr Redfern sent to NSC in 2022.
The letter raised similar safety and access concerns highlighted during his recent presentation as well as frustration about council’s communication and ongoing requests for action.
“This whole situation is a waste of council rate payers’ money, as band-aid measures attempt to patch up the situation, rather than completing the unfinished council drainage project,” Mr Redfern said in the letter.
“I am constantly fobbed off and the issue of our access road condition is neither rectified nor resolved.”.
Mr Redfern also listed what work he believed needed to be undertaken.
“Cut and maintain the table drains to utilise the installed drainage pits; re-sheet Roma Lane with quality gravel; regularly maintain a crest and camber on the road to get the rainfall water away from the road.”
Mr Redfern concluded, “look forward to hearing your reply, including a progressive timeframe to complete the drainage works that council undertook to do on Roma Lane in 2011 before someone is seriously injured slipping off the untenable, rutted track.”
The Roma matter was discussed later during the council meeting, with Cr Rohan Boehm asking the director of infrastructure delivery about the Roma Lane situation as well as other roads in the shire, and how council can effectively address the issues.
“We have many of the same issues across many roads within the shire as council are well briefed on,” said Mrs Chaplain.
“We have a massive backlog of flood damage, which we have no approval for currently to do those works.
“Those packages are sitting with Transport for NSW to get approval.
“There is no flood damage on Roma Lane, however, due to the amount of work across the rest of the shire, with the resources we have, the service levels go down in different areas.
“Without resheeting roads, which is tied up in the flood damage, means we have to grade roads more often.
“So, it costs council more, not just in the flood damage, but in the continuing maintenance of those roads.”
“What we have committed to with Roma Lane within this current financial year (2022/23) … we have engaged a contractor to complete those drainage works.
“That contractor has been on site.
“That contractor has also performed a maintenance grade of that road.
“The team have filled up, there were some rough patches, some nasty holes which get wet and just continually get worse and worse, and they filled that up with material, which will help the water flow out of those bad areas.
“We are also in discussions with Transport for NSW – they’re doing works on the Kamilaroi Highway, which means they take millings essentially from the road, which is appropriate for use on gravel roads.
“So, we’re in discussions with them about using that material on Roma Lane, so that’s what we have committed to currently.”
Cr Boehm also asked a follow up question regarding “an apparent willingness of local farmers to take on some of the work themselves. I was just wondering what would our policy be in that regard?,” he asked.
NSC director planning and sustainability Donna Ausling said it would ‘create a range of public liability considerations’.
“Our insurer may be concerned around individuals undertaking work on our assets, particularly if there is an incident.
“And with roads, you do have the community traversing those roads, so if the work’s not done to a particular standard that can be a significant concern and a risk to council.
“So, I would caution any practice of having individuals working on council assets without the appropriate checks and balances in place.”
Cr Ron Campbell said he had driven out to see Roma Lane firsthand recently after having a conversation with Mr Redfern.
Cr Campbell put forward the idea of looking at ‘the possibility of handing it over to the farmers so they can maintain their own road’.
NSC general manager Rob Williams said, “That’s a conversation I’ve had a number of times, in the time I’ve been here, internally in terms of ‘let’s look at what roads we can offer back to the community for them to run as their own private roads effectively’ because it’s not a thoroughfare, it’s not providing access to any of the people other than the people that own it, so that would be a fabulous way of potentially saving money.
“So again, I think that’s one of the serious issues and really good innovative solutions at this point in time that we could throw into the next community strategic plan discussions and put it out for community consultation.”
Council provided the below update on Roma Lane following the meeting, “There has been a delay completing drainage works due to the weather, however council still has the contractor engaged to complete these works once conditions allow,” said a statement from NSC.
Following the council discussion and meeting, Mr Redfern told The Courier: “In response to the councillor’s suggestion regarding potentially ‘handing over the local roads to effectively be private roads’, the landholders reply loud and clear – NO THANK-YOU.
“We have paid enough rates over a very long period of time to deserve an all-weather access road.
“One would think that a ‘progressive council’ over time would make road improvements, not abandon their own drainage project and try and pass the buck by ‘gifting’ to the adjacent landholders to rectify and undertake council’s obligations. Abatement is a word that comes to mind.
“Council seems to be missing the point – the locals are offering to help because they are desperate for their access. They are offering gifts (machinery, gravel, freight, expertise etc) to assist council – but council keeps looking the gift horse in the mouth.
“I have recently searched the council’s files concerning Roma Lane SR 103 via a GIPA application (GO2024/0072).
“The council undertakings since 1995 are in ink.
“The council’s own survey data conducted by the current road services manager shows that the table-drains are higher than the road itself; the availability of funding ($355,000 in November 2010); the remedial works required – it just never seems to get off paper and onto the road,” said Mr Redfern.
