Bellbrook's Toose Road residents cut off and 'fed up' with lack of action on landslip

The community remains isolated; their livelihoods and businesses are disrupted; and they are tired of waiting for Kempsey Shire Council to fix the landslip that has closed access to Toose Road, since March.

They will be airing their concerns at Bellbrook Town Hall tomorrow (Wednesday July 20) where they will meet council staff to discuss progress on the remediation works.

Station manager and farmer Newman Hollis, called the meeting on behalf of the community because of what they consider to be a lack of progress and clarity from council.

"They are saying stuff, but they aren't starting stuff," he said.

The Macleay Argus spoke to affected residents Helen Graham, Shane Warwick and Mr Hollis, who all communicated a sense of "sheer frustration" at council "refusing to listen" to their suggestions.

The property owners and managers of cattle farms say they are experiencing great hardship and disruption to their businesses, such as the inability to move their cattle to sale.

"We had the fires, droughts, pandemic, the fish kills in the river, then the floods, and we've dealt with all that ourselves, and now we have this tiny little window to try and sell some cattle to try and pay for that, and we can't get our cattle out," Ms Graham said.

The community says it is now a time sensitive issue and it needs resolving as soon as possible.

"If we can't get anything in and anything out, we can't continue business. And as it stands, our properties are worthless," Mr Warwick said.

The families attending tomorrow's meeting with council will ask for a progress report and confirmation on next steps, including "firmer deadlines". They say they need clear information in order to plan their futures.

"We cannot continue living like this," Mr Hollis said. "If they confirm a deadline for what they plan to do to fix the situation, then we will dig our heels in and just live the best we can, but if they say it's going to take four years, I'll pack up tomorrow and leave."

Mr Warwick says the event is "life changing" and wants written commitment from council so that he can plan ahead.

"We want a bit of certainty into the future; either they don't do anything more, they fix Toose Road or they build a bridge. For our own sake and for planning, we just need a bit of certainty into the future."

In response to questions about the meeting, a council spokesperson said it was to "update the status of the short-term road construction and present the preliminary concepts for work to restore long-term public access to the area."

The consensus from the community is that fixing Toose Road is "the best option" in terms of time and cost and "the only option" for continuing their lives, as they were.

Locals offered to use their bulldozers to fix Toose Road, but council refused the offer because it was deemed too dangerous.

"We offered to go and fix the road ourselves for free. We are farmers, we get stuff done," Mr Hollis said.

"Shane Warwick's dad has been a dozer driver for years and years, and he said he would do it. He's done this stuff, he's lived this stuff, and he knows the dangers.

"We could have had it done by now, but because someone from the city looked at it and said it's too dangerous - in this day and age - council have to stand behind it."

Shane Warwick recalls his father looking at the landslip and confidently proposing he'd have "it fixed in two days".

"We were prepared to sign any waiver, and were happy to do it ourselves at no cost to council", he said.

Helen Graham has confidence in her neighbours.

"They are the people that know when it's dangerous. They're not going to upset their equipment and they're not going to endanger their own lives. It's the person sitting on the bulldozer seat that knows," she said.

Kempsey Shire Council has commissioned two specialist geotechnical reports on the existing slip site.

It says those reports independently determined that it is highly dangerous and still moving, and in fact the site of a much larger original landslip.

An update on council's website reads: "seismic field investigations have indicated that at the slip site, hard rock can only be found at around 17-35 metres depth, making road construction incredibly unsafe, noting the 50 metre sheer drop to the Macleay River at that site.

"Council acknowledges that the residents and landholders are incredibly resilient farmers who have an incredible hands-on approach to problem solving, but the identified risk means council cannot and won't support landholders putting themselves at risk and trying to repair it".

Residents are also "frustrated" at the lack of progress on an alternative route, which they warned council was "a bad idea" and "won't work".

"At present, they're trying to [build] this road over the mountain which [we said] was a bad idea, and that [they] shouldn't even be going up there with machines," Mr Hollis said.

"And now they've come to this horrible realisation that they've bitten off more than they can chew, and now it's blown overtime and there is still no clear deadline on when this other road will be open."

Bellbrook residents say the new road will not be suitable for cattle trucks, and will make the travel to the local school a four to five hour round trip.

"We told them not to go there with the other road, and now they're having dramas with it. We're experiencing sheer frustration that council didn't listen to us in the first place.

"We want a written commitment from the council that we are not going to be left this new road that will only take 4WD", added Mr Warwick, who doesn't believe the alternative route will allow the residents to continue living in the area.

"I don't know when it will dawn on them, that fixing the [Toose] road is the only option."

Council says the work it has undertaken at the site so far, includes:

The aim of Wednesday's meeting is for both parties to leave with clarity on next steps.

"We want some end goals in writing and some action on them. At present, we just have their word, we don't have anything in writing", Mr Hollis said.

"At this stage, there should be dirt being turned somewhere. I honestly don't think they're pushing it enough to get things happening.

"We are happy if we are seeing progress. Where we don't see progress, we will get our bristles up".

Mr Hollis expects all families who are affected to attend the meeting tomorrow.

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