Waterfall Way: Northern NSW floods cause road closures and landslips

Coffs Harbour and Armidale residents will have to get used to the very long way around. Here’s why.

The main road between the Coffs Coast and the Northern Tablelands will remain out of action for some weeks.

Two landslides west of Bellingen in the recent prolonged wet weather event have closed Waterfall Way in both directions.

The route is the major link road between Coffs Harbour and Armidale.

The closure is a major headache for the communities of Bellingen and Dorrigo - as many travel between the two daily for work and school.

Re-opening of the road is expected to take at least three weeks - and further wet weather could stretch that time frame even further.

A Transport for NSW (TfNSW) spokesperson said the department is working hard in conjunction with emergency services to restore the route as quickly and safely as possible.

Based on the latest site inspections, Waterfall Way will be closed for at least three weeks as the landslips are cleared; however this assumes a break in the weather to get the work done.

Once the material is cleared, repair techniques will most likely require earthworks and soil nailing to remediate the site.

Waterfall Way. Picture: Adam Dederer

More than 420mm of rain had fallen at Dorrigo in the four weeks to Tuesday, March 1, and with more rainfall predicted, the repair and recovery efforts will be difficult, a Transport for NSW spokesperson said.

An alternative east-west route is available via the Gwydir Highway between Glen Innes and Grafton.

Waterfall Way is notorious for being cut off either due to landslips or – as the name suggests – waterfalls over the road.

In March 2021 it was closed after wet weather resulted in 17 landslips on the mountain road.

“We know the importance of this road to local communities and visitors, so restoring access as quickly as we could has always been our priority,” then Minister for Disaster Recovery, John Barilaro, said at the time.