The Bundarra Emu Bridge Committee has amassed a mountain of evidence, demonstrating the community support and need for a flood-proof Emu Bridge over the Gwydir River, 2km towards Armidale from Bundarra.
There are 80 individual and 500 form letters of support now in the hands of the committee. These are to be presented to the Uralla Shire Council Meeting next Monday, May 28.
The Committee is urging as many residents as possible to attend the meeting, to show their support from the public gallery.
It is understood that the Committee will put forward three speakers to address the Council.
Locals of the Bundarra area are fed up with being cut off by floodwaters. The current Emu Bridge is a low-level stone and concrete construction, built shortly after WW1.
When cut off, people who live on the Armidale side of the bridge face a round trip of up to 160km, just to get their children to school in Bundarra. There have also been dramatic health concerns caused by the flooding of the Emu Bridge, when the locals with a medical emergency have had to travel a long way around to get medical attention.
Due to the regional importance of the road, support is believed to have come from Inverell and Moree Plains Shire Councils.
Chair of the Bundarra Emu Bridge Committee, Bob Crouch, said that demonstrating that Thunderbolts Way is a key regional road will help to get the funding. “We know it is; we see the traffic coming through Bundarra. The count by Uralla Shire Council in late February showed that an average of 552 vehicles used the Bridge each day and that 185 of these vehicles were trucks.”
Independent Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay, and Independent Member for New England, Tony Windsor, have also backed the Bundarra battle.
With a likely price tag of over $3mil for a new Emu Creek Bridge and approaches, it is hoped that a joint funding agreement can be reached between the three tiers of Government.
Story: Gary Fry
