It’s been a battle raging for almost 40 years. Residents on Boorga Road have constantly raised their justified concerns with Griffith City Council about the dangers of the road.
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Not only life-threatening, but the cost to producers and locals are many-fold. Back in 2013, The Area News reported it had been a quarter of a century and still no action had been taken on one of the city's most crucial access roads.
Councillor Christine Stead presented a letter from 1987 to council in 2013 which requested Boorga Road be given priority to "withstand all types of traffic in varying weather conditions". At that time, a group of grape and melon growers approached council, requesting the road be given precedence in its flood repair schedule.
None of the money received from the floods ever went into the road, according to residents. Instead, melon grower Wayne Andreatta and two other local farmers spent $20,000 installing pipes and drainage in the road after the floods.
Councils response: "Boorga Road is also on the list of roads to be constructed and sealed but that is a very long list.”
Fast forward to February 2018, and Captain of the Boorga Bush Fire Brigade Michael Pfitzner renewed calls for it to be sealed after the fourth accident he attended in the space of only one month.
This may have sparked council’s motivation to find alternatives, starting with the survey – however property owners are still left in the dark. What is the solution council are preparing? Where will the money come from? If council ask for residents and producers living on Boorga Road to help foot the bill they may be in for a rude shock if they decline.
As all residents use the road to different extents, how will they determine who should pay what? Will the big producers like Rombola or Greenview Farms be expected to pay more? And they ask, well why should they?
As some of the largest melon producers in the MIA and possibly in NSW, the amount of revenue they bring to the town should be enough to more than compensate for their use of a public road.
However what about the smaller farmers and residents - They could argue the road’s abysmal condition is from the hundreds if not thousands of vehicles from the bigger properties, especially during harvest.
Despite all of this, the residents remain grateful for the continued and frequent maintenance via grading – but it just hasn’t stopped the problems.
If you go to a hospital emergency room, your condition is assessed on severity and the worst get sent to the front of the line. Is it time for the same approach to be taken with our roads?
