East Pilbara council moves to scrap outdated Pastoral Road and Airstrip Maintenance Policy

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East Pilbara council moves to scrap outdated Pastoral Road and Airstrip Maintenance Policy

In a unanimous decision, the Shire of East Pilbara has voted to review and revoke its Pastoral Stations — Road and Airstrip Maintenance Policy, declaring the 2006 policy no longer fit for purpose.

The policy currently allows the use of shire-owned equipment to carry out unfunded maintenance work on private pastoral land, a practice now seen as unsustainable on the grounds it is not in the public interest to divert scarce funds from essential roadworks for a private benefit.

“When this policy was originally put in place, it was invoked in the days of road boards, when our councils were stations and our communities were very small, only consisting of people who held mining tenements or small businesses,” Shire of East Pilbara deputy shire president Wendy McWhirter Brooks said.

“I just want to note the concern that we are representing all members of our communities, and if we are going to provide this service for stations which are private businesses, we really should be providing this service for all of our Aboriginal communities as well, which is something we don’t have the money to be able to do.”

The road access policy originally included one fully maintained access road per station (connecting the homestead to a shire or Main Roads WA-maintained public road), one full maintenance grade per year for each designated road, emergency road assistance after cyclone flooding and minor gravel sheeting or resheeting.

The airstrips policy originally stated that each separately rateable pastoral property would be entitled to a once per annum surface maintenance grade of the pastoral property airstrip adjoining the station homestead.

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