No more Blackbutt Range road

[hotspur]

Have had a few people contact me from Brisbane wanting to come up for asto nights.

I mentioned on other threads,we have had major undermining on the Blackbutt Range Road,and its impossible to get here.

Some have not seen that info,so thought I'd post it here.we look forward to your visits in the future-hopefully the road can be fixed.

Bur not looking good.We have lost all our income-I work at local sawmill and have a tourist business in which I cook camp oven meals for day visitors from Brisbane up to 50 at a time @$20 per head.so between those two lots of income lost,things a bleak economy wise here.

We did qualify for the Government flood assistance,so will be able to eat for a while. But already have had to council bus trips,-it never looks good,regradless of reason,have never had to do it before,so hope the business comes back.

I was looking into a internet business,important nich items and selling,but was not planning to do it for some time,but may looking into it a bit,but one again-the mail is only once a week.

Thankfully Chanel 10 bought a chopper film crew in yesterday and did a story-as usual some bits wrong,but pleased someone gave us exposure,it does appear by most of media there is only one place in Queensland-Brisbane.

So a big thank you channel 10

Here is a few images of the not so badly damaged parts of range-some of it has had a major land slip underneth it.

Cheers Chris

[mozzie]

unbelievable pictures!!! it is such a mess up there... hope it gets sorted and your lives back on track.....

[Liz]

Yes Chris, I saw that on Ch 10 last night, that road (closed one) looks really scary, looks like it could all fall away.
Hope a bit of help filters through.
Makes you wonder how many other smaller towns are suffering without media exposure??

[jjjnettie]

Holy crap Chris.
They're going to have to work on that real quick.

[hotspur]

It appears unlikely that most of that range road will ever be in use again.

Those images are just the minor damage jjj.

They did show the really bad bit from the channel 10 helicopter.

Nobody is 'officially' saying time frame,but even if can be repaired,it months

not weeks.

There is a detour,they are trying to fix up,for use to 10 ton vehicles.

But,its really 'white knuckle' touring.

So everyone here in Blackbutt/Yarraman feel rather sad,to now get to Brisbane is a four and a half our road trip (providing no major delays).

We get mail only once a week.We are hopping to get some flights going from Kingaroy airport (it can land 737's) That silly old peanut farmer got it built.

I wish the old fart had of left the railway-it goes up the range,and is in perfectly good condition (the corridor is left and its foundations are good).

Chris

[CometGuy]

OMG Chris thats amazing. So you must have to drive via Toowoomba to get to Brisbane?

T

[DavidTrap]

Those photos are incredible Chris. Agree it's going to take months to fix...

Hope the mill can give you some work soon.

DT

[astroron]

Chris, I hope you can get back to some form of nomalacy soon:thumbsup:
Cheers

[hotspur]

VIA Gympie is the only way at present,I do not like the look of our chances getting the detour in quick either.

Just went into town this arvo-there is a huge gate and fence bolted into the road at the top of the range.

Still,could have been a lot worse,many people lost their lives in all this rain and floods,especially in the Lockier Valley and Toowoomba,those families will never really get over that,A few months is really nothing.

I really hope some of that donation money goes to those people that have had so much loss,especially to those who have had the loss of a number of family members-all at the one time-the funeral costs would be very difficult on top of their grief.

[h0ughy]

wow - there is 6 months reconstruction just in those sections of road - let alone stabilising the batters and cutting. there is easily .5-1 million in that fix just there. unless the local road authority can get a federal gov storm damage grant i say this road will remain a goat track. Newcastle and the central coast managed to get some funding in 2007 for our flooding , but the Queensland stuff eclipses it by many factors.

[Tandum]

I can guarentee you the railway line to the coal fields will be fixed first. There's something like 200 ships anchoured off shore waiting to be loaded.

[hotspur]

A couple of regular astronomers that visit our observing grounds;asked if I had some other images of the range.

One of the local gravel suppliers in Blackbutt is taking a lot of material down the range,I think these images came from his facebook page-my son sent these to me.

Certainly,undermined- The detour is being constructed,the 'official' word on range,is its closed indefinitely.

The councils and main roads are putting in a fair amount of effort to fix this.Considering the amount of damage all over the state.It appears the issue is been giving a fair amount of priority.

The large amount of rain has caused a lot of other damage around here as well.We have over 100 lavender plants in our gardens,we sell the dried cut flowers to many places and people.Every bush has died due to too much water.

So very busy times ahead,in the gardens and cleaning up last weeks storm damage.

Regards Chris