Southern councils put in joint $20 million bid for timber haulage roads

Included in the joint bid to the Growing Local Economies program is $7 million to surface a currently unsealed section of Coppabella Road, which connects 13,500 hectares of plantation in the Greater Hume Shire to logging routes.

Softwoods Working Group chair Peter Crowe, who is working with Greater Hume, Cootamundra-Gundagai and Snowy Valleys councils on the project, said roads like Coppabella were crucial to the industry.

“Coppabella flows out onto Tumbarumba-Wagga Road, and logs then go either north to Tumbarumba and Tumut or south, and to a variety of customers including to Hyne, Visy, AKD and Norske Skog,” he said.

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“A lot of this wood needs to be hauled in Winter, so there’s wet conditions and we’re using B-Doubles, and road geometry and safety are absolutely important.

“We can’t afford even short-term disruptions to road haulage, because it will interrupt processing in a significant and costly way.”

The roads nominated for improvements under the $20 million project enable the annual cartage of half of all logs produced in the region.

Mr Crowe said a University of Canberra report into the impact of the Southern NSW softwood industry released last year revealed just how important it was.

“It shows 50 per cent of jobs in the Snowy Valleys are due to the industry,” he said.

“The south west slopes processes three million tonnes but only grows two million tonnes, and the rest is imported from Monaro, north-east Victoria and central-west NSW – the industry needs the wood and to get the wood you need to fix the roads.

“We are hopeful of seeing a favourable announcement sometime in December.”

The first eight kilometres of Coppabella Road from the intersection with Tumbarumba Road was sealed in recent years but this latest round of works will see the entire section used by logging traffic upgraded, including a bridge which is currently single-lane and difficult for trucks to navigate.

The road, which is a major priority for Greater Hume Council, has been closed numerous times due to poor conditions.