Dust and health worries at The Pines spark petition at Yorke Peninsula Council

Forty years is a long time to wait for roads to be built, but enough is enough says the SA town where dust gets everywhere it shouldn’t.

The Pines resident Glenda Walker cleans two weeks’ worth of dust from her outdoor table. Hers is one of 180+ signatures on a petition calling for the township’s roads to be sealed. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

For 40 years, residents of The Pines on the southern Yorke Peninsula have asked the question: How difficult is it to build a road?

But with council rates jumping 4.8 per cent this financial year, the beach town’s fluctuating population of 135has reached a tipping point.

On January 22, resident Ian Williams presented a petition to Yorke Peninsula Council, signed by nearly all the township, pleading for bitumen on about 1.5km of unsealed road.

“It’s a lovely town, but we basically live in a dust bowl,” the 71-year-old told The Advertiser.

Ian Williams (third from right) with fellow residents on Ti-Tree Rd, one of the town’s three main thoroughfares, just after a car has driven past. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Settled in the 1970s,The Pines has no water mains, no footpaths and just four street lights.

In the petition, Mr Williams said many relocated there for “fresh air and tranquillity”, but dirt thrown up by cars and wind “settles on roofs then drains into rainwater tanks”, while “exacerbat(ing) medical conditions” and forcing people to keep doors and windows shut.

Several residents told The Advertiser it was common to clean the tanks each year and find up to an inch of caked sediment at the bottom.

Mr Williams said that some holiday-makers ignore the 30km/h speed limit, worsening the dust bowl effect. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Mr Williams, a 43-year local, said it becomes worse when dozens flock to beach hideouts during summer, some ignoring the 30km/h speed limit meant to reduce dust.

Council was quoted $2.5m to pave the roads, but an estimate Mr Williams sought last month was cheaper at $230,000.

A council spokesman said road grading in the past 12 months achieved “good results” for dust suppression, with further work in the pipeline.

Pines Community Association chair Phil Walker and wife Glenda on their porch. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

He said many settlements were “located near coastal and dune sand environments, where dust generation is an ongoing challenge”.

“Sealing is one consideration, however comes at considerable cost, noting also that this would not resolve drainage challenges caused by the low-lying topography,” he said.

“Alternate, cost-effective options are being considered for rehabilitation of our existing unsealed street network.”

Pines Community Association chairman Phil Walker, 72, said booming property values saw his council rates jump 14.5 per cent in two years, from $1139 to $1304 – not including the $277 for rubbish collection.

“We just want the same thing as everyone else who pays their rates,” he said.

“People say to us, ‘You chose to live here’, but when we bought these properties at the beginning of the 80s, the inference was that they were going to seal the roads.

“We couldn’t predict 40 years later that it wouldn’t be fixed, otherwise, we would have gone somewhere else.”

Last month, the council was criticised by the YP Ratepayers Association for suspending Councillor Adam Meyer on bullying claims, after he persistently sought documents about a property dispute between it and a resident.

The association is hosting a community forum with state crossbencher Frank Pangallo on February 11, 5.30pm, at Sharp Arthurton Sporting Club.

Originally published as Dust and health worries at The Pines spark petition at Yorke Peninsula Council