Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Route Network ‘surprise’ winner in Federal Budget

Agricultural freight routes across WA are in for an upgrade after the Federal Government handed down millions of dollars to fix WA roads. An ambitious plan to fix 4400km of the Wheatbelt’s most important agricultural roads received an $80 million boost in Tuesday’s Federal Budget. The Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Network road upgrade program aims to deliver improved safety and efficiency to key freight supply chains across the Wheatbelt. It broke ground on its first $1 million project to widen 3.16km of road and extend drainage culverts on the Mogumber-Yarawindah Road in February. WSFN chair Katrina Crute, who is the Shire of Brookton president, said the $80 million of new money came as a “complete surprise” to the organisation on Tuesday. She said ultimately $500 million would be needed over 15 years to upgrade the full 4400km of roads along 80 connecting freight routes. The Federal Government funding was expected to be topped up with a further $20 million in State funding when the State Budget was handed down on Thursday. “We had no pre-warning that this was coming, so we are very excited that a project of this size is being rewarded on a Federal level,” Ms Crute said. “It shows that if local governments can get together as a group to deliver real outcomes collaboratively, then they will get the support from the Federal Government.” The $80 million for WSFN formed part of WA’s $1.1 billion infrastructure boost to upgrade roads, replace bridges and build interchanges and freight networks in major Budget measures expected to generate close to 7000 new jobs across the State during the next four years. Ms Crute said the funding would bring the group’s total to $187 million of its $500 million project. The first phase of the WSFN program was jointly funded, with the Federal Government committing $70 million through its Roads of Strategic Importance initiative, and State Government providing $11.67 million, with an extra $6 million from WA local governments. The first WSFN talks were held in 2016 as a discussion about the desperate need to upgrade WA agricultural freight routes. Now, WSFN is supported by 42 local governments and includes representatives from the Wheatbelt North Regional Road Group, Wheatbelt South Regional Road Group, Regional Development Australia, Wheatbelt Inc, WA Local Government Association, Main Roads WA and the Wheatbelt Development Commission. Ms Crute said the organisation was waiting on State Government and Federal government approval to reveal a list of priority projects. The Federal Budget also included $16 million to seal 17km of the 180km-long Wiluna to Meekatharra road, 125km of which remains unsealed. Long regarded as the missing tooth of WA’s regional road network, the 183km stretch of highway that links the Goldfields and the Pilbara remains largely unsealed and is prone to flooding. That funding enables the continuation of a State Government trial which has seen Aboriginal graduates from Wiluna’s Martu-ku Yiwarra Training Centre employed on a pilot program for the sealing of the road. The Federal Government confirmed on Tuesday the new funds for the Wiluna to Meekathara road would secure about 100 jobs when work begins early next year. WA Nationals Member for North West Central Vince Catania said the State Government should now match the Federal funding. Shire of Wiluna president Jim Quadrio, from Granite Peak station 200km north east of Wiluna, said the route was important for pastoralists, tourists, and workers accessing Geraldton. He said the largely corrugated road was 90km shorter than the alternative route from Wiluna to Geraldton, which involves travelling south on the Goldfields Highway before heading west along the Agnew-Sandstone Road and through Sandstone and Paynesville. “As far as Wiluna goes, it is quite important because it is the shortest route to get down to the Great Northern Highway and to Geraldton,” Mr Quadrio said. “It will cut off about 90km of travel time for livestock and you are not travelling across corrugations. “When it is extremely rough, you have to go to Leinster and Sandstone and that adds hundreds of dollars to pastoralists’ journeys.” Mr Quadrio said the funding had come as a “complete surprise” and he hoped there would be more to come in the State Budget. “It came as a total surprise, I did not know about it until Monday morning,” he said. “It was a pleasant surprise, and we certainly appreciate the contribution. I hope there is another surprise announcement in the State Budget.”