Mallacoota residents want action on only access to tourist hub

Funding announced two years ago to fix the only road in and out of Mallacoota remains untouched, with locals demanding action following last week’s rain-forced closure.

Funding to fix the Mallacoota-Genoa Rd that was closed for two days in last week’s spring deluge has sat untouched since early 2021.

After being shut for weeks at the height of the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, the federal government announced $10 million to upgrade the “one way in, one way out” 26km stretch of road in May 2021.

It survived the recent Albanese government infrastructure review, but locals are demanding action following the latest closure due to landslides caused by torrential rain that also had the town’s airport temporarily out of action.

“We’ve had plenty of meetings, plenty of talk, but we want some action,” Mallacoota resident Peter Hancock said.

“We keep hearing the same excuses.

“It’s time to stop putting a bandaid on it all the time.”

Gippsland MP Darren Chester has slammed the federal and state governments for no action on fixing up the Mallacoota-Genoa Rd. Picture: Gary Ramage

Gippsland MP and former federal infrastructure minister Darren Chester slammed the federal and state governments for “lacking urgency” on the works.

“The Melbourne and Canberra bureaucrats have no regard for the transport challenges we face on a daily basis,“ he said.

“The road had not received any major upgrades for more than 20 years and was severely compromised during the fires, forcing a naval evacuation of locals and residents.

“The funding was intended to kickstart the process of building a better, safer and more resilient transport link between the highway and the coast for the benefit of everyone.

“But instead of moving quickly to design and deliver improvements, we’ve been stuck in the slow lane.

“To make matters worse, the new minister Catherine King wasted 200 days this year with a review and again, no progress was made.”

Aerial photograph of Mallacoota in East Gippsland.

Ms King has responded to Coalition criticism in dumping the Roads of Strategic Importance funding program that was devised by the Coalition.

“The government has acted on a recommendation of the independent review to establish road corridors along nationally significant freight routes,” Ms King said.

“ (ROSI) projects have largely been merged into these corridors.

“Of the line items mentioned by (Senator Bridget McKenzie) as ‘future funding priority projects’, none of these were actually projects.

“Rather, they represented unallocated ROSI funding to be directed to projects in future.

“All unallocated Victorian ROSI funding has been consolidated into a single Victorian unallocated funding line item and remains available for Victoria to propose future projects to the Commonwealth.”