As a 22-year resident living on Coolamon Scenic Drive north (CSD Nth), I am gobsmacked that I have not received even one iota of information [apart from in The Echo] from Byron Council about this evergrowing plan to force every vehicle leaving Mullum going north (that’s anyone going to Brunswick, Ocean, SGB, Yelgun, Murwillumbah, or the Gold Coast), through this road. That’s up to one million extra cars, trucks, buses, vans, trailers, camper vans, boats, motorbikes, electric and pedal-driven bikes, pushed through this dark, dangerous, windy, falling gum tree-lined, steep-edged (30m drops with no guard rails), eight-kilometre tourist road. Daily. And (just updated) for ‘at least’ four months! That’s from October to February, right through summer and the highest tourist season. Could you plan this any worse?
It is not realistic to expect that to happen on a road full of sharp turns, blind corners, with very few turnaround points and no safe passing lanes, boggy, muddy shoulders where they do exist, falling trees across the road in almost every storm, and water over the road from the mountain walls and poorly maintained drains – without a serious, even deadly, incident.
Can you imagine the daily anxiety if you get caught behind a (rightly so) timid driver traveling at 30km/h?
Cycling groups often use the road as a regular recreational ride. How is that going to work?
Again, we are asking, where is the community consultation? Where is the risk assessment, the feasibility study? The impact study? The reality check?
I ask Council to consider what would happen if there was a breakdown, or an accident, particularly a serious one, or even worse ‘a fire’ (perhaps from an accident) in this densely-wooded, dry, heavy ground-fuel bush?
Is there a plan of how to get emergency services into the accident or breakdown on this narrow, packed road? Is there a plan to get injured persons out? (You can’t fly a chopper into this road). Is there a plan to get out the thousands of motorists who could end up trapped if there was a fire, because I wouldn’t want to have to run from a fire in that area.
Is there a backup Mullum exit plan if, or when any of this happens?
Even logistically there are parts of the road where two large vehicles literally cannot fit side by side. I’ve seen trucks have to do three-point-turns on some of the corners. In my time here I’ve seen four accidents, just outside my place, two of them serious.
I’ve seen cars hit by falling branches. There are several slippery bends, one on which many a person has ended up in a 180-degree slide. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come around a blind corner to see a large caravan centimetres away from my mirror, more than often crossing the lines. The number of blind corners also raises a high chance of multiple rear end pile ups, should cars suddenly have to stop around one of these bends.
And how do you think that this eight-kilometre line of cars is going to exit at the Orana Rd roundabout? Merging with traffic coming down the hill from Brunswick, Byron, and local community and school traffic coming out from Ocean Shores will be slow, and frustrating.
How the heck will cars even get out of Main Arm Rd, turning into Mullum?
Getting out of my own driveway is already getting dangerous, as the buildup of cars using the road begins. Some properties and St Johns School will not be able to turn right into CSD Nth.
The usual 10-minute journey could take a good 30-40 minutes, every day. On top of that, wallabies, brush turkeys, lizards, snakes, koalas and a multitude of native animals are active and have corridors across this road, particularly in the early morning. Has there been any studies, or mitigation plans made for their safety? Or is their demise all part of the new price of progress?
Council has recently spent time repairing pot holes, pruning trees and placing white markers and lines in some parts, but this does not make the road any better, or safer. In fact to date, this has just encouraged the local speedsters to use the curved areas as a new race track at night.
And how will this road look after one million heavy vehicles use it for four months? Is there a budget to repair it?
I haven’t even started on the pollution factor of one million extra vehicles, to the pristine bush and highly active bird populations, or the effects on my health, or my son’s asthma!
Council’s last Echo release also talks of night works. This will mean little sleep for the ‘rural’ residents of CSD Nth, because the noise of vehicles echo through these valleys and around the curves.
All in all, it’s fair to say that the use of this currently 200-car-a-day tourist road, as the only exit for 80 per cent of the outbound Mullum traffic, from the shire’s second-busiest road, is a poorly-planned last-minute alternative (…it only suddenly appeared, after the planned The Saddle Road upgrade fell through).
I call on Council to re-approach, renegotiate, and be firmer, with the Mullumbimby Rd works developers (particularly on McAuleys Lane works, which are NOT even for the community, but for the developer), and find a way to keep Mullumbimby Rd outbound access throughout the works.
To date, it seems Council is just adding more time, and more concessions to the developers. Failure to renegotiate a better access plan for the period, is a failure to provide and protect the community, and frankly, a failure in the duty of community care.
If the plan to use this road goes ahead, then Council must be held responsible for any accidents or deaths that will, most likely, occur.
Perhaps it’s time for the mayor to have a chat with the developer-involved deputy mayor, and come up with a better plan – in-house, as they seem to do everything these days, because this one just won’t work.
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. 
