Daintree residents beg State Government to immediately intervene, override DSC to fix Cape Tribulation Road
DIRE SITUATION
Businesses and others in the community of Cape Tribulation say they’re tired of relying on Douglas Shire Council to fix their only road linking them to the south – and are turning to the state government for urgent help.
The community north of the Noah Range on Cape Tribulation Rd – including Cape Tribulation itself, remains cut off to conventional vehicles because of huge damage caused to the road by landslides during the post-Cyclone Jasper flooding in December.
Now, more than 70 days later, local small business and tourism advocate Lawrence Mason says Douglas Council is taking way too long to fix Cape Tribulation Road.
He has told Newsport that it’s time for the state government to take the task off Douglas Council and seize control of the whole situation north of the Daintree River – starting from the Ferry, to fixing the road with much more urgency right through to Cape Tribulation.
Single-lane only on Alexandra Range
Mr Mason and other tourism business owners are very concerned after also being told by Council that the Alexandra Range section of Cape Tribulation Rd – currently with only a single-lane open – would not be back functioning with its normal two lanes for another 12 months.
“The impacts on both Cow Bay and Cape Tribulation will be devastating,” Mr Mason said.
With the start of tourism season only a few weeks away, he said the situation is dire.
“You imagine waiting for an hour at the ferry with your three screaming kids, then you drive off the ferry for another kilometre and you join another one-hour queue to get across the Alexandra Range,” he said.
“It doesn’t pass the pub test, let alone any other test.”
He said apart from stop lights, road signs and barriers, there’s little or no progress on the road repairs.
“They’ve put pretty barriers up and they’ve put lots of sandbags up but nobody’s actually done anything yet. They need to get someone to start work there ASAP and get stuck into it so it’s ready for the tourist season.”
Noah Range still closed
Mr Mason and the community north of the range is also holding up virtually no hope that Cape Tribulation Rd at the Noah Range will be re-opened to normal traffic anytime soon.
Currently there’s only limited access to four-wheel-drive vehicles and some two-wheel-drives with high clearance.
But even this morning, the road was completely shut again according to a Council update – because of heavy rain late yesterday.
“I can tell you that a school group scheduled to come into the DRO (Daintree Rainforest Observatory) on the 21st of March has been cancelled on the basis that Douglas Shire has said the road will still be closed, and that’s a month away,” Mr Mason said.
“We literally need a similar response to the Cook Highway – where hundreds of men and machines got stuck in and got it done.”
Support needed: long list
If Cape Tribulation Rd is not fixed urgently and quickly, Mr Mason said the government will need to step in and provide financial and service support to the community and businesses, including fuel for generators, and wage support, until the road is back to two lanes all the way through to Cape Tribulation.
He has a long list of items which he is asking for support on:
- Guarantee regular medical help in an environment of privacy once a week
- Guarantee access to school for children - find a 4WD bus to cross the range and make sure ALL children are covered by the scope of plans; there are high school kids as far north as Cape Trib
- Guarantee fuel and gas deliveries under disaster relief as required.
- Guarantee postal delivery once a week
- Guarantee food delivery to community once per week.
- Meaningful financial support immediately (meaning without further delay) to affected businesses – Wage support for staff immediately (not the insulting $562/fortnight we get that runs out soon)
- Weekly 4WD bus service to Mossman for community members who have no way to cross the range in conventional vehicles so they can access services, pay bills, renew licences, etc
- Retention of COI (Certificate of Inspection) on tour vehicles based here that can’t get to pits
- Waiver of rates, liquor license fees, EPA fees, in fact all fees until road is back to business-as-usual
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