They’re in the middle of planning a police operation that will see officers from across the Western region converge on the Gunnedah area to ensure motorists arrive to the area and return home safely next week.

Peel cluster highway patrol Senior Sergeant Brett Davies said officers would also be keeping an eye on heavy load requirements for exhibitors and those purchasing large items from the big event.

He also urged motorists to keep an eye out for changes in speed zones, particularly on the Oxley Highway into Gunnedah from Carroll.

“It’s a traffic operation in relation to traffic movement to and from AgQuip, in the lead up to and the days after,” Senior Sergeant Davies said.

“We need to be mindful of wide load movements in and out of the site.

“Unfortunately history has shown that some of the exhibitors don’t necessarily do the right thing with the transporting of these vehicles.

“We want them to do a bit of research and make sure they have got the necessary permits and associated paperwork if moving any over-dimensional vehicles.”

Senior Sergeant Davies said officers would be maintaining a high visibility presence over the course of the event with police from as far as Narrabri, Mudgee, Coonabarabran and Armidale joining in on the police operation.

“People travel a significant distance to get to the event,” he said.

“So our spiderweb of care will extend quite a distance away.

“One of the things we are working on with council is to make sure we can give people the best access to the site as possible.

“Unfortunately over the years a couple of collisions has clogged things up and most people know there are not too many detours particularly on the Tamworth side of Gunnedah.

“We’ll also be deploying police resources to look at all the usual offences, seat belt offences in particular and also load security.”