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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-19 Daily Xml
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Regional Roads

Mr BROWN (Florey) (15:05): My question is to the Minister for Regional Roads. Can the minister advise what actions have been taken to help South Australians affected by recent rain events? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BROWN: Recently, northern parts of our state experienced a significant rain event, which I understand has caused damage to key outback roads.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart—Minister for Local Government, Minister for Regional Roads, Minister for Veterans Affairs) (15:05): This is a question relating to regional roads, so I am quite happy to answer that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: Thank you very much to the member for Florey for the question, and I am sure that everybody in this house understands the challenges with the roads in the outback, especially with the rains that are happening across all of regional South Australia, the top end and also Queensland and New South Wales. It was a bit of a baptism of fire for me as the newly inducted Minister for Regional Roads.

On 24 April, as we all know, rain in the north-east of the state was very heavy and created slippery, unsafe road conditions requiring very urgent attention. There were around 30 unsealed roads closed temporarily because of this heavy rain. Nearly 70 millimetres of rain were recorded in 24 hours in some areas, but thankfully this weather did not result in widespread flooding or create supply chain issues. However, the Bureau of Meteorology forecast more rain and possibly thunderstorms in the same areas on 29 and 30 April.

For members who have been up that way, you can understand the change in the demographics up there and the weather forecasts. The proprietor of the William Creek Hotel, Mr Trevor Wright, phoned the road condition on-call mobile on the morning of 24 April to report the rainfall and subsequent road closures. The road condition report was updated accordingly on the same morning and—as we all know in this house—as is the norm, it was emailed to over 100 regional businesses, pastoralists, tourist organisations, SAPOL and other key stakeholders.

As it happens, I have known Mr Wright for many years and was able to catch up with him on numerous occasions during my travels across all the state in my previous role as Minister for Regional Development a couple of parliaments ago. Mr Wright messaged me on 25 April saying that they were being pelted with rain and that a number of travellers were stranded at William Creek. He also sent me some photographs of that area.

The next day, Mr Wright told ABC radio that more than 80 people were stranded at William Creek, which is a very small community, and that supplies were starting to run low. Internet services were down and even the gas to heat the water was getting tight. Mr Wright and I had numerous telephone conversations over those two days, during which time I also had discussions with the new chief executive officer of my department. The department then liaised with SAPOL and the SES to determine supply levels and to develop an evacuation strategy for the travellers stranded at William Creek.

The department's road inspectors attended William Creek on 27 and 28 April to determine when roads could be reopened and where possible. They were opened when conditions were improving. It is worthwhile emphasising that outback roads are monitored regularly by the department for safety and accessibility. In fact, the department website provides regular updates for outback road warnings for people intending to travel in the regions of the state.

It is also worthwhile for members of the public—and this is very important—to check the latest update on open, restricted or closed and unsealed roads before setting off. In this case, the emergency department team liaised very closely with Mr Wright on a convoy of about 20 vehicles carrying stranded travellers that left William Creek heading to Coober Pedy, with SAPOL meeting the travellers halfway. On 28 April, Mr Wright was kind enough to thank both me and Minister Koutsantonis on ABC Radio Adelaide talkback, saying, and I quote:

People were getting down on their medical scripts and they were running out of everything…I think there was a bit of tension there about what was going to happen with the weather [that was coming in] on Friday.

Trevor is a very well-known, respected person in the outback and everybody in this house knows who Trevor Wright is. He went on to say:

So far it's been a good outcome with Tom and Geoff involved in it. It gave it much better direction…they prioritised what needed to be done.

That's what our role in this house: we're here as the bridge between the people and the task of government, whatever it may be. That's why I got into parliament. I want to thank everybody here, I want to thank the department in particular and thank Minister Koutsantonis for his support in this regard.

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