The state of the roads in Upper Main Arm is an ongoing disgrace three years after the flood. I appreciate that Byron Council has done its best to restore its road network since the catastrophe, a mighty undertaking at the best of times with stretched resources. However, the situation up the valley has gone from bad to worse and will continue to worsen for all residents and stakeholders if some major redevelopment of the road, its causeways and drainage isn’t undertaken.
Main Arm Road is a through road linking Byron and Tweed shires. On many maps it is highlighted as a scenic tourist drive, and thanks to the efforts of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to increase tourist facilities and visitations in Mt Jerusalem NP, a new multi-day hiking trail and camp grounds set to open next year will see its non-resident through traffic increase dramatically. Alas, NPWS doesn’t seem to be concerned that on both sides of the park the access roads (Main Arm Rd and Manns Rd) both flood very easily, with the consequence that day visitors and campers may be trapped in the park potentially for days on end.
The roads are still bad but also, since the flood the Main Arm Creek has become seriously silted up and my observation, after 30 years in the valley, is that flooding events are becoming more frequent and caused by less and less rain. Two options now present themselves. The road needs to be completely rebuilt with much higher causeways (dare I say actual bridges instead of roads that go down into the creek to cross them) or the creek needs a serious dredging because it is now full of road base and landslip debris.
I suggest that pressure is put on NPWS and the federal government to chip in, especially if they plan on using it as their access road in and want to avoid a potential human tragedy in the making.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
