Dubbo Council ditches opposition to River Street bridge plan

A campaign to stop construction of a new bridge across the Macquarie River at Dubbo has been dealt a blow with a local council rethinking its approach to the project.

Dubbo Regional Council has backflipped on its opposition to construction of a controversial $220 million bridge across the Macquarie River, with the local mayor saying the project is now “inevitable”.

At an extraordinary meeting in September 2019, councillors, with the exception of Anne Jones, Kevin Parker and Jane Diffey, voted to formally express the organisation’s opposition to the NSW Government’s River Street Bridge plan.

Supplied Editorial How the new River Street Bridge in Dubbo could look. Picture: Facebook

The bridge, set to run from River St to Whylandra St, will provide residents with another crossing over the Macquarie River during floods and connect the city’s west with the north, where multiple new health and education developments have taken shape.

Critics of the bridge plan argued it would do little to improve traffic flow in Dubbo, was poorly designed and that the money would be better spent on a bypass.

At the council’s October 2021 meeting all councillors, with the exception of Greg Mohr who was absent, voted to endorse a new Dubbo transport strategy which “aligns” with the state government’s plan to build the River Street Bridge plan.

Dubbo Mayor Stephen Lawrence said he believed the bridge was “inevitable”.

“The argument was never about whether Dubbo needs a new bridge or not, it was about where it should be and its relationship to a ring road,” he said.

“I’m personally still supportive of a ring road because liveability and amenity and all sorts of other considerations are heightened when you get heavy vehicle and highway traffic out of town.”

Dubbo Mayor Stephen Lawrence. Picture: Ryan Young

Cr Lawrence said a grassroots campaign to stop construction of the bridge had not been a success.

“That campaign didn’t succeed in fast tracking a ring road or a bypass, that was clearly its objective,” he said.

“The River Street Bridge is inevitable, there is not going to be a ring road or a bypass at the moment in the near future.”

Karina McLachlain, spokeswoman for the Stop The River Street Bridge group, accused the council and Labor Party oppositions of not doing enough to halt construction of the bridge.

“They’re blaming us for the campaign not working but they pulled their support,” she said.

“One of the reasons the campaign lost support is because Labor pulled its support. The campaign could be very successful with the upcoming federal election, if Labor actually got their federal opposition on board because if they win the election, they can pull the funding for the River Street Bridge and say ‘we want that for ... the bypass instead’.

“We need a council who’s actually going to support our campaign strongly and we need the Labor Party to support the campaign rather than ditch it.”

Stop The River Street Bridge campaigners Greg Nolan and Karina McLachlain speak with Tullamore resident Michele Langley about their petition. Picture: Ryan Young

Ms McLachlain said she suspected the council was abandoning its opposition to the bridge plan earlier this year when she used the Government Information Public Access (GIPA) system to obtain a letter council’s former CEO Michael McMahon had written to Narromine Shire Council, supporting its application to have the Eumungerie Road reclassified as a state government-managed road.

The road is already used as an alternative way to bypass Dubbo and Ms McLachlain feared handing the state government responsibility for the road would undermine her campaign’s case for a new combined bridge and bypass which would require state funding.

She said while some councillors had spoken out and campaigned against the River Street bridge plan, more should have been done to stop it.

“There is a lot the council do, rather than leaving it up to community volunteers, that’s not fair,” she said.

“That bridge will destroy our town and stop us from getting the bypass.”

Construction of the bridge is expected to start by the end of 2022 and be completed in 2025.