Herald 20221011

or lose votes
Washout eliminates access to
Gowrie Little Plain property
Roads promise broken
It’s said that 70 percent of road problems have a connection with drainage and water flow. Well, this gully in Gowrie Little
Plain is an extreme example. The depth of the problem is shown by local resident John McGrady who has helped a number
of ratepayers to co-ordinate their criticisms of their road situation.
When an access road to your property is not maintained by the
council, and this lack of maintenance contributes to the formation
of a three-metre gully across it, thereby rending it useless, what can
you do?
That’s the situation for a Gowrie Little Plain landholder whose
steep hill property starts at the end of this kilometre or so long road.
He does have access to part of the property from the other side
of the hill, which is part of the Storey’s Mountain complex but the
Farmer Ewart Sylvester has
endured extra water flows onto
his property since the establishment
of a housing estate on
Kingsthorpe’s eastside.
Mr Sylvester has a commercial
turkey production business,
accessed from a northern extension
of Story Road. There
is another farm which also has
access from Story Road which
was changed substantially by
Council or developers when the
estate was established more than
six years ago.
While waterways to take the
town water away were constructed,
the poorly designed
Story Road earthworks have
also changed its elevation and
water now flows down the Sylvester
farm road, scouring gravel
regularly. Council’s changes
to water flow levels can be seen
by the almost covered farm corner
post.
• Kingsthorpe farmer Ewart
Sylvester shows how low a
4-foot farm corner post is following
urban road changes
which now direct flood water
down his access road.
washed out road provides the only reasonable access for him to service
a windmill and water point.
He said the road had been in existence for more than 100 years.
It is understood that the area, which includes a couple of contoured
cultivation farms, is part of the Boodua Soil Conservation
project area number three and therefore has some government status.
But the owner said the council seemed to lack interest in fixing the
road. The owner wished not to be named.
Housing estate run-off changes water flow
Brenda Blanck says Garske Road where she lives, is in its
worst condition in 50 years, so lacking has been the maintenance
work by Council. She said the road has been boggy in
recent times, preventing access. There is a gully that crosses
each end of Garske Road and this also prevents access when
it’s flowing. Brenda said in the 2011 flood, she was trying to
get to work, but was swept into a washout at one of these
crossings. She said Council obtained grant flood recovery
money and Garske Road was to have been maintained and
rebuilt. But it never was.
Roads were gravelled
John Reis, Lilyvale, has lived in the district all his life and
remembers that most of the roads were gravelled. He used
the Caterpillar loader, pictured, to get the red gravel from the
nearby Burkes quarry. This was spread on most of the roads,
many of which were used by milk trucks on a daily basis. Mr
Reis said the roads in the Gowrie Little Plain and Glencoe
areas were gravelled and maintained until the mid 1990s after
which they were said to be “dry weather roads only”. However,
the point was made that the re-population of the farming
districts by new home builders, lifestyle people, hobby farmers
and continuing commercial farmers, demands the council
re-appraise its poor road maintenance program.
Glencoe, Gowrie Little Plain and Kingsthorpe
ratepayers want action from their council
To advertise phone 4615 4416 or email herald@highcountrynews.net.au HIGH COUNTRY HERALD - OCTOBER 11, 2022 - 9