Piallaway residents aired their frustration about the poor state of roads when Gunnedah Shire Council hosted its ordinary meeting at the community hall. It also led to council discussion about another known trouble area – Grain Valley Road.

Monthly meetings are usually held at the Elgin Street council chambers but two meetings each year are regularly held in shire villages.

Last week’s September meeting of council was held at the Piallaway Community Hall – on the far eastern boundary of the Gunnedah shire.

Residents thanked councillors and staff for the opportunity to host the meeting. They also highlighted the success of this year’s Australia Day activities in the community, which were supported by a small council grant.

Community members also highlighted the recent upgrade of mobile coverage at the hall – a project supported by a grant from Qantas. Residents were also seeking funding from other sources to upgrade their barbecue area and provide greater accessibility with a ramp into the hall.

One of the major discussion points, however, was the poor state of roads in the area. As one resident explained post-meeting, road maintenance is the only shire service which directly benefits ratepayers at the area.

Residents described how some people who required in-home care were cut off for than a week after recent flooding, due to water damage and the state of access roads.

Others also described the inadequacy of road repairs undertaken by council.

They said plant equipment is repairing roads “one bucket load” at a time.

“Potholes are being filled inefficiently,” the resident said.

Residents praised the recent establishment of the Rural Roads Working Group, describing this as a “fantastic initiative” to help improve dialogue between the community and council, but many still held concerns about future road repairs.

Residents explained continued maintenance would only defer the problem until the next major high-water event. They said a fix was necessary, preferably with culverts built over the main problem areas.

Gunnedah shire’s director of infrastructure services, Jeremy Bartlett, said council was “aware of issues in the area” but limited in its options due to financial constraints.

Residents were told construction of a culvert could cost anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million but the price was entirely dependent on each circumstance.

The slow access to government grants for natural disaster-categorised road repairs was named as one of the major infrastructure obstacles facing council.

Grain Valley Road

Gunnedah shire mayor Colleen Fuller said council has been waiting since 2022 for government funding to repair Grain Valley Road.

The road connects Mullaley to rural communities on western side of the Gunnedah shire, and north to Boggabri in the Narrabri shire.

The road was damaged in recent flood events and has been closed for weeks since – much to the frustration of residents and road users.

Council said the road was damaged while it was seeking to have grants approved for repairs from previous flood events.

Director of infrastructure services, Jeremy Bartlett, said it took funding authorities two-and-a-half years to determine its first road repair application.

By this time repair costs had increased exponentially, and council has been unable to meet the shortfall.

Mr Bartlett said there was not enough money available – through grants and council resources – to safely open the road to traffic.

He described navigating the disaster funding space as a “massive headache” for local government.