By Emily-Rose Toohey
Condamine River Road has been closed since November last year and residents are concerned about the environmental impacts constant high-speed traffic as well as the rise of uninformed social media influences has had on the 14 Cambanora Gorge river crossings, which the road runs along.
Killarney resident Barbara George lives near said gorges and has first and foremost seen the negative impacts four-wheel drives have caused the environment.
She said that the effects of climate change are also putting huge pressure on the gorge and that council does not realise how sensitive and unique the environment is.
“I’m originally from Switzerland and we’ve made mistakes over there in the past with waterways and not many were let natural – I thought it important to prevent it from happening here (Australia),” she said.
“In 2019, it was recorded that over 400 cars travel across the gorges which usually stirs up a lot of sediment and it never runs totally clear.
“Car underbodies that impact the water quality and wildlife are threatened, including the platypus.”
Furthermore, Barbara said that over the past 25 years she has lived in the area, she noticed that the rise of social media and the internet has contributed towards the growing environmental concerns.
She explained that she has witnessed people try to create viral videos by driving their vehicles as fast as possible through the gorges to create large splashes, captured on camera.
“Then they post it online – the road then becomes wet and muddy,” Barbara said.
As for Condamine River Road itself, she said that it causes a lot of maintenance issues for council and the wet weather means SDRC have issues with safety.
“After each flood, council have to come out and assess the road for damages in crossings,” Barbara said.
“People who live out here bought properties knowing full well that there was a big river – they can’t get away from the fact.”
Barbara also said she was worried about cement river crossings being implemented and emphasised the importance of fish passages.
“If they’re not well designed, they’ll cause a lot of damage to the environment during construction,” she said.
“The water is such force and will damage these crossings.
“However, if they are well designed, it costs ratepayers lots of money and council will still have to do maintenance – I can’t really see what the benefit it and in the event of flooding, they could be washed away.”
Barbara said that the river crossings have to be made at the same level as the water or 20cm above water level maximum.
“They have to be covered with a rough surface, have secure protection and actually be constructed with rocks,” she said.
“This day and age, cement is not good for the environment.”
Similarly, resident Justine Hankin said four-wheel drives are the main factor damaging the gorges and environment in the area at large.
“It’s a biodiversity hot spot and the crown jewel of the Murray-Darling system and the council doesn’t seem to be acknowledging it,” Justine said.
“It’s all being lost because the road is valued as a four-wheel drive track.”
She said the main problem was cars speeding through the crossings having never experienced driving on something like it before.
“Going more than 5km through a natural crossing is speeding,” she said.
“There’s sediment that is stirred up by the vehicle, oil is released from the underside of the vehicle, and thousands of number plates have been lost in the river,” she said.
Furthermore, Barbara said she believes that by allowing Condamine River Road to be a four-wheel drive track, council thinks it is a cheap way of attracting more tourists to the area.
“People bring business to Killarney – we see tourists drive through the gorge and turn around,” she said.
“Sometimes they stop by the river and have a drink.”
However, she said that when international travel was not possible due to Covid, more people were travelling to areas closer to home, like the Southern Downs, but were sometimes behaving badly.
“Dirty nappies and bottles are thrown out of cars and council doesn’t want to maintain rubbish bins – it’s too expensive to maintain,” Barbara said.
Although locals are not trying to stop tourism all together, she said they it was important to instead spread awareness about how to treat the environment and offer tourists different ways to explore the landscape.
“Horse riding, push bike riding, walking up the gorge, bird watching – we want to encourage a much softer type of tourism,” she said.
“We have to remember that we’re the headwaters of the Murray darling system and it’s dying at the moment.
“We have a national responsibility to protect it.”
