Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Madam Deputy Speaker, I thank my fellow member for Lyons, Mr Jenner, for raising this important matter. Much like my other fellow member for Lyons, Ms White, I spend an awful lot of time on the east coast. I have run a tourism business there. I have lived there for many years. I have seen not only the impact of Wielangta Rd, but similar single entry and exit roads across Lyons. This is just one example of a far broader issue we are seeing for regional and rural communities. It is time to have a big discussion about reassessing the safety and fit-for-purpose nature of our roads and various infrastructure, particularly when it comes to the safety of getting communities out and signage for tourists.
A great example of this is the bushfires at Coles Bay in September last year, when the road was blocked by a fallen burnt tree. Had the fire moved further south getting people out of the town was going to prove incredibly difficult. There was no set plan in place. The tourists did not know what to do. The community came to their rescue, setting up the town hall as an emergency shelter. However, it should not have come to that or fallen on stressed community members to pick up the pieces. There should have been a plan in place and an alternative to the single entry‑exit road when it was blocked. The Cam River Bridge is another fantastic example of isolating different communities.
We need to assess the liabilities of our infrastructure and ensure that they are going to be fit‑for-purpose as we see climate change exacerbating natural events such as floods. We are going to see more landslips with more rocks fall on various roads.
The other thing we can do with roads such as Wielangta is to look at future tourism investment in the area. The proposed Wielangta National Park is an example of that. We also have a similar situation in the Styx Valley with the Styx tourism road. We have world heritage‑valued tall trees at the end of that road and it is very difficult for people to access parts of that. We need to be looking at roads that can have complementary benefits – safety, tourism and economic value – and invest in them appropriately. That may be with more signage, sealing them or simply improving their quality so that they can be accessed by far more people.
The Styx is another example in terms of getting people around safely. It offers an alternative exit for regional towns such as Maydena and Westerway, if there were to be a bushfire that were to cut off the main highway there.
Thank you again to Mr Jenner for raising this as one example of the much broader conversation we need to have about our single entry‑exit roads and infrastructure.
