Heritage gravel roads divide communities

Australia's most endangered places, according to the National Trust of Australia, are two New South Wales gravel roads local councils want to seal.

One is Bloom Hill Road, O'Connell, 20km south east of Bathurst and 200km west of Sydney. The other is Point Plomer Road near Crescent Head, midway between Sydney and the Queensland border. Neither road is listed on the State Heritage Register.

The Trust says Bloom Hill Road dates from early European settlement and makes a “major contribution to the scenic, cultural and historic lands through which it passes.”

But the Oberon Shire Council says there has been considerable development along the road and the volume of traffic has made if expensive gravel to maintain.

The Trust's deputy conservation director Graham Quint, said that by maintaining the gravel surfaces, the roads contributed to each area's history, culture and scenery.

But the Oberon Council, while it considered the Trust's view, decided by five votes to four, to seal the road. “It is difficult to maintain whether the gravel is wet or dry,” said engineering director Leigh Robins.

The Point Plomer Road, which runs from Crescent Head to the Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve, has been the centre of a long running dispute over whether it should or should not be sealed.

But the Kempsey Shire Council will seal two substantial sections of the 10km road early this month, because it says it would be negligent not to improve a road used by 2000 cars a day during summer, and like Bloom Hill Road, is expensive to maintain. The work will be finished by Christmas.

The Trust describes this road as being in “low key rustic condition” and it is concerned Aboriginal sacred sites may be desecrated during an upgrade.

The character of this road in north eastern Victoria has been retained despite sealing

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Heritage gravel roads divide communities

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