By Michael Genovese and Claire Ottaviano
The drive to WA’s south-west holiday hotspots will be up to 20 minutes shorter this summer with the Bunbury Outer Ring Road expected to open by the end of the year.
The 27-kilometre, four-lane stretch of highway connecting Forrest Highway to Bussell Highway has been named the Wilman Wadandi Highway, after the Wilman and Wadandi people of the south-west.
Transport Minister Rita Saffioti announced 85 per cent of the highway – including five bridges and four interchanges – was now complete.
The pandemic and associated labour and construction shortages have been attributed to the bypass’ cost ballooning more than $600 million over budget.
“The original cost was $850 million and it’s gone to $1.4 billion – but the Commonwealth has paid for half of it, and it has been built through all the supply chain interruptions and COVID which has impacted all of our projects,” Saffioti told Nine News reporter Michael Genovese.
She said the highway would separate local Bunbury traffic from freight and tourism traffic making the route safer.
“The Forrest Highway has been getting busier and busier, and we’ve seen major housing developments in places like Eaton and Australind,” she said.
The soon-to-be open Wilman Wadandi Highway.Credit: Michael Genovese
“Tourists that are going down into the south-west will be saving over 20 minutes, and 13 sets of traffic lights are going to be removed for those commuters or those tourists heading down into the south-west.
“It’s going to reduce congestion, and, importantly, it will allow Bunbury and those suburbs to continue to grow.”
Credit: Department of the Premier and Cabinet
It’s estimated more than $500 million was injected into 360 local businesses with nearly $50 million allocated to Aboriginal suppliers.
Senator for Western Australia Varun Ghosh said training programs led to work opportunities for local Aboriginal people.
“It’s fitting that the name of the road will recognise the traditional owners, the Menang Noongar people,” he said.
“The Yaka Dandjoo program has provided on the job training opportunities to nearly 200 local Aboriginal people, with 125 going on to gain full-time employment as a result.”
But the road development, the largest in the south-west’s history, has not been without controversy.
In December 2022, the Friends of the Gelorup Corridor argued in a federal court that the state’s roads authority and federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek had side-stepped environmental approval processes.
The group’s lawyer Angel Aleksov accused the federal government of handing Main Roads WA blank-cheque conditions to clear 70 hectares of land to make way for 10.5 kilometres of the highway – home to tuart and banksia woodlands and habitat for the critically endangered western ringtail possum, the black cockatoo and the black stripe minnow.
But lawyers for the minister and Main Roads defended the approval, insisting conditions applied were adequate and that there had been extensive work done into the impact of the project.
Main Roads’ lawyer Fiona Seaward told the court the authority had swathes of information about the environmental impact and what would be required to produce a satisfactory offset strategy.
The case was ultimately dismissed.
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