If Gunnedah Shire Council’s application for $3.85 million under the Fixing Country Roads program is successful, the remaining 17.4km of notorious gravel road can be sealed, saving the McKays both time and money.

An estimated $8.2 million is needed for the upgrade, with Gunnedah Shire Council committing $500,000 and up to $3.85 million in funding under the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program announced in late August.

The council submitted an application for another $3.85 million under the Fixing Country Roads program earlier in the year and is expecting a response this month. 

Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson said he contacted the Roads, Maritime and Freight office on Monday and said he was “hopeful” the application would be assessed this week. 

“We will hopefully have an indication of how that project has progressed in the next week or two,” he said.

“I’m always hopeful that projects in our regions will be approved, particularly this one. We’ve been pushing very hard for it and fingers crossed that it does get approved.”

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Mrs McKay said Mullaley was “chomping at the bit to get that job done” because “every day costs and every week costs our community”.

“It’s imperative for the financial well-being of the region. It’s greater than a local area - the through traffic and the reduced cost in travel time for all the transport companies that need to use it safely,” she said.

“The cost to the local traveller is immense and the cost to the farming community. The cost of repairs to their vehicles is horrific.

“Every kilometre of extra road travel you have to do reduces the net price for the farming community.”

Mrs McKay and her husband Alston have an on-farm bakery and regularly transport the goods to Boggabri and Moree. She said Grain Valley Road is too rough and dusty for the refrigerated trucks so they travel via Gunnedah to Boggabri, which adds an extra 27 kilometres to their trip.

Mrs McKay said it takes them almost two-and-a-half hours to get to Moree and $100 in diesel but “the cost of fuel is going up rapidly”. If Grain Valley Road was completed, it would knock about an hour off the round trip and save on fuel.

“Both times we fuel up that’s about $40 or $50 odd dollars that we’d be saving, which is significant, but to be honest the most significant thing we have is time. You can’t put a dollar on that,” she said.

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