Gunnedah council to decide overpass name

Transport for NSW has cleared the way for Gunnedah Shire Council to determine a name for the town’s new overpass.

Council sought advice earlier this month whether it would be able to decide on a name as two sitting councillors were among the 262 public submissions for the road-over-rail bridge in Gunnedah.

However, Transport for NSW clarified that the requirements for eligibility of a bridge name is that the person must be deceased.

Therefore, those councillors were not required to declare an interest and permitted to participate in council’s determination of the name. This was due to occur at last night’s council meeting.

Council was not required to recommend the most popular name as contained in the summary report but the selected name should not be any more than three words or 25 characters long.

Options for consideration included one Aboriginal name option, being that supported by those in the community based on Transport for NSW consultation, and combinations of the Aboriginal name with a number of European names.

Gomeroi elder Reginald John (Dick) Talbot was among the nominees put forward. Other options put forward to council included Reginald Talbot Bridge and Doc Anderson Bridge, Reginald Talbot Bridge and Nancy Small Bridge and the Reginald Talbot Bridge and Sergeant Siffleet Bridge.

Council has been requested by Transport for NSW to review the submissions as outlined in the report and to detail its recommendation by September 9, 2021.

The $61 million bridge was opened to traffic in November and reputed to be one of the biggest road infrastructure projects the town has seen, providing 500 jobs during construction.