With numerous outback WA roads still cut off due to flooding, the truckies supplying some of these communities are having to add thousands of kilometres to their trips.
As ABC News reports, those supplying the Ngaanyatjarra communities in the WA’s Goldfields have been affected by the closure of parts of the Great Central Road.
Manager of the Warakurna Roadhouse, Nathaniel Rosenberg, told ABC News that supplies are usually trucked in 1726km up the Great Central Road from Perth once a week.
Warakurna is around 781km west of Alice Springs and 331km from Uluru, and 1163km from Kalgoorlie.
Due to water over the lower section of the road, trucks are having to detour from Perth to Port Augusta, SA, then up the Stuart Highway towards Alice Springs, west to Yulara, and into the Ngaanyatjarra Lands from the east – bringing the trip to 3995 kilometres.
“It’s always the same whenever it rains out here. It always gets pretty crazy,” Rosenberg told ABC News.
“But this, in particular, got pretty hectic for the people from the west.”
Despite delays with supplies, Rosenberg said the Warakurna Roadhouse had enough goods in stock to get by.
Though the Great Central Road is now open from Kata Juta to Warburton, the stretch from Warburton to Laverton remains closed, with more rain forecast later this week.
In an update issued from yesterday from the Shire of Laverton, it said the council was inspecting its roads to assess damage and required repairs. “The council has instigated a flood damage claim which will see engineers undertake a complete examination of the council’s road network,” it said. “It is envisaged that the entire network has been damaged in some form.”