21 January 1970
“March on Parliament”
For Orange road link
A Cudgegong Shire Councillor has suggested “marching on Parliament House” and “lying on the roads,” to have something done about a bridge at Dixon’s Long Point to link Mudgee and Orange.
“Let’s do something”, Cr. Wal Evans told last Thursday’s council meeting after Shire President (Cr. Paul Khoury) said all previous efforts had failed.
Cr. Khoury said: “We’ve done everything humanly possible.
Our last deputation was with Canobolas Shire Council.
“We have also made representations through our local Members of Parliament.
“What else can we do?
“We can’t get a gun and hold it to their heads.”
Cr. Vin Suttor had suggested that a combined effort by the various councils concerned had not been made previously.
He said:”I think people are looking to us to contact others and get this thing moving.
“It’s been going on and on and on and we have become laughing stocks.”
Cr. Khoury said there had been “no relaxation on our part about Dixon’s Long Point”.
“I’m more anxious than you,” he told Cr. Suttor.
The council earlier decided that Cr. Khoury and the Shire Clerk (Mr. R. Sadgrove) should broach the issue at the regional meeting with the Presidents of the Shires Association and the Local Government Association.
The meeting will be held at Orange on March 2 with Canobolas Shire Council and Orange City Council joint hosts.
These two councils are also vitally interested in the Dixon’s Long Point bridge which will allow the free flow of traffic from Mudgee to Orange direct.
The Department of Main Roads has promised the money for the bridge, but has not yet “come good with it”.
Their only solid offer, according to Cudgegong Shire Clerk (Mr. Sadgrove) has been to build a single lane, low level timber bridge.
This would be a “pretty silly thing to build”, Mr. Sadgrove said.
He said that in January, 1968, a proposal had been put to the Department for a two-lane concrete bridge, and nothing had been done by the Department since.
However, it is understood the bridge could cost around half a million dollars.
Mr. Sadgrove said the main expense would be in the approaches.
The Macquarie River at that point was steep and almost unapproachable.
A bushfire tail had been taken to the water’s edge in recent years and it was now possible to get to the edge by car, but this was a 15 minute exercise.
If the bridge were constructed, the distance from Mudgee to Orange would be reduced to about 64 miles.
Mr. Sadgrove said the remainder of the road was quite trafficable.
It joined the main road from Orange to Wellington at Mullion Creek.