My folks live up in Grafton on the NSW North Coast and I was up with the Beloved visiting between Christmas and New Years. By car the trip up there is about a 7 hour journey up the Pacific Highway. I know the road well. Since moving to Sydney in 1997 I have done the journey many times. Upgrading the Pacific Highway is a very contentious issue in North Coast local politics. Sections of the highway have been likened to a ‘goat track.’ It has been a year since I drove the route so I was quite interested to note what improvements were made, if any, since last Christmas. Also I got me thinking about how the State and Federal governments have failed the residents of the NSW North Coast in regards to the much needed upgrade for the Pacific Highway.
There is some good news. From Hexham to Port Macquarie there have been significant improvements. Finally you don’t have to worry about going through Karuah (regular drivers will know what I mean). The goat track still exists in some areas but most of the road seems to be dual lane carriageway (with further extensions under construction) so that part of the trip is a breeze. However after Port Macquarie the goat track returns (apart from a few passages) and you often share it with B-double trucks who delight in tail gating and travelling over the speed limit. It is an area where you need to take care when driving through. It is a shocking road in some sections and hard to believe it is the main route up the NSW coast.
Many people have lost their lives on the Pacific Highway. Two horrific bus crashes, one near Grafton and one at Clybucca in 1989 still stand as testament to the dangers of the road. The then NSW coroner, Kevin Waller, recommended that the highway be upgraded to a dual lane carriageway as soon as possible. 15 years later and still about two thirds of the highway between Hexham and the Queensland border is still a goat track. The perception is that both the NSW and Federal governments have dragged their heels in the issue.
One of the best descriptions of the problems regarding upgrading the Pacific Highway comes from one of the local papers.
The Clarence Valley Council’s local emergency management officer, Ian Dinham, said the failure to significantly improve the highway between Coffs Harbour and Ballina since the 1989 Cowper bus crash — which claimed 20 lives — had been a ‘triumph of bureaucracy’.
The argy bargy between the NSW and Federal government goes on regarding who is going to pay for what. A toll way and private companies have been suggested to help expedite and pay for the construction work need. Given recent public experience with Public-Private Partnerships in NSW it would be best to treat the idea with caution. The idea of a toll way should not be summarily dismissed but as no one has detailed how such a toll way would work which is another cause for concern. How would locals be affected if they need to travel the toll ways on a daily basis? The idea does reek of the typical politician tactic to say something (anything!) rather than say nothing at all.
The RTA over the Christmas period recommended using the New England Highway if possible when travelling north. This represents a sad state of affairs for road transport in NSW. Both governments need to step in an attack the problem head on with action and commitment. Not continued financial waffling and playing the blame game. People’s lives should not be a partisan issue. I don’t agree with Andrew Fraser deciding that venting his frustrations in a physical manner on Joe Tripodi was a correct course of action. However the blame for any further, preventable deaths on the Pacific Highway as the result of political dithering should be placed at the feet of the Federal and State ministers responsible for NSW roads.
The Pacific Highway is still bad, it should be a dual carriageway the whole way up to the Queensland border. They have had donkeys years to fix it too, but no complete solution has been funded or pursued, just ad-hocs bits and pieces as political necessity demanded.
The US is criss-crossed with highways. It has made small towns into economic satellites connected to the bigger economic centres. Australia should have embarked on a similar program, instead we have the largely provincial economies of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on the east coast.
In comparison Boston, NY, Philadelphia and Washington DC are one large integrated economic area. I am constantly travelling inside that region. Australia doesnt have anything really the same, and it is because the transportation system has been an impediment to it.
my brother lives at Lawrence and ANYONE who travels up there in Summer is a MORON. It is too hot!
My memory as a youngster was on constant one lane bridges.
Thank the lord they aint around.
Ever thought of travelling most of the via the New England. There is hardly any traffic there
Homer,
The trouble with travelling the New England is that you have to come down the range at some stage. If I was going to Brisbane I would consider it but it makes the trip to the North Coast a lenghty one. My trick was to leave around 4:30-5:00am. It makes a big difference even during the holiday period. By 10:00am you are well over half-way through the trip and you miss all the congestion as it is behind you.
You are right about the heat. Though Lawrence is a lovely town. Got a nice little pub that is worth visiting for a meal.
Actually Shaun I did that last Easter and it made no difference. Mind you the Karuah by-pass had not been finished.
Easter is still too damned hot both at Lawrence and at Brisbane!!
Easter is the best time up there. Mornings are cool, the days are tolerable. Still a chance for thunderstorms.
The Beloved and I have discussed going via Glen Innes to visit friends so we may take the Newie next time Homer.
we are ONLY going up there in winter. My brother is about 3 hours drive from My wife’s aunt is in Brisbane so it is easy to combine the two.
Anyone who visits there when it is not winter is Mad. The Temperature was 29 degrees last Easter. Yuk
Apparently only 10% of traffic go via the New England
Yeah, Sean, lots of people were angry at Andrew Fraser for trying to clock Tripodi. Not for actually doing it, you understand. For jumping the queue.
I am one of those terrible b double drivers that you car drivers love to hate and believe me the feeling is mutual. You people must understand that we know this highway better than anyone we literally know every bump,bend and pothole so don’t sit in front of us doing 80 or 90 klm in a hundred zone and then speed up when it is the overtaking lane so we can’t get around you. Our trucks are not slow like they were 15 or 20 years ago we have over 600 horse power and we just want too do 100 if that is the speed limit so don’t put yourself in danger just let us overtake you when it is safe to do so and I wouldn’t advise you to travel it at night if you don’t know the road very well because that is when the express trucks are out and you would be better to travel it during the day time.
If my memory only served me better.
I am almost certain that an entreaty was made in November 1989 to the then Federal Minister responsible for granting the funding for the upgrade of the Pacific Highway, I think it was Bob Brown before he turned Green. This was done well before Coroner Waller having heard expert evidence in his inquisitorial role into the collisions at Cowper and Clybucca decided he would call for the upgrade to the Pacific Hwy.
Can anyone of us ever really know how much of the dreams, hopes and aspirations of not only the passengers and drivers were forever lost but those who attended the scenes and those who attended the duties and responsibilities of caring.
Each year I feel the repeated sadness that attended these events, I went to the scene at Grafton I attended a number of others, I came to know nearly all the survivors and their families along with other dedicated members of the team I worked with. Each story was in its own right an unbelievable tragedy.
How many times should we ask successive Governments of State and Federal jurisdiction to step up and reduce the road toll by upgrading this disgraceful road?
18 years later I reflect again on the needless loss of lives and the sad recollections of those who survived and those who lost loved ones. And still this road is taking more victims.
On this 18th anniversary at Cowper, I again remember the victims and the families, the Hospital, Police, Ambulance, Firebrigade, SES and other Volunteer rescuers who did their duty and showed dignity and respect to individuals from that horrid scene at Cowper, when a North Bound Bus collided with a South Bound Semi tailer at about 3.50 am 20 October 1989.
Speaking of damaged drives to Grafton…
And lest you think I’m being heedlessly snarky here, I’d just to say that this observation
“…the Hospital, Police, Ambulance, Firebrigade, SES and other Volunteer rescuers who did their duty and showed dignity and respect…”
I think pretty holds true all around Australia. The care, patience, humane and bloody hard committed work of those, often on shit wages or less, who sort out, clean up and care for our road carnage, day after day after day, is one of the great unsung daily miracles of this joint.
D Farley/Nabs,
I was one of those hospital workers back in the region in October 1989. As a physio I saw only those with fractures and sprains who needed casts and splints and slings, but my colleagues on the pointier end of triage and emergency care did mighty work indeed. The helicopter pilots flying all day taking the severely injured to regional trauma centres deserve a special nod as well.
It is a disgrace that it’s taken this long to upgrade the Pacific Highway to double carriageway all the way.
D Farley,
slightly off thread, but when was Bob Brown ever not Green.
You can hitch from Armidale to Newcasstle on the New England Highway in one day.