A 95 year old council road that crosses a creek bed off the Goulbourn Valley has been swallowed by a slug of sand and the Walker family no longer have truck access to their home and farm - or income from cattle and hay.
Muswellbrook Shire Council has refused to clear the causeway at the Baerami Creek crossing, where sand and silt deposited in the various floods and now prevents all vehicles from accessing fertile paddocks up Hungerford Creek. However, the council has issued the Walker family with an approval under section 138 of the NSW Roads Act to carry out their own clearing work - effectively handing control of the council road over to private farmers.
Alarming deposition occurs at the junction of swift flowing Baerami and Hungerford Creeks, which together with a third gully system join in a convoluted way as the valley broadens and streams become braided.
Silt from the upper valleys comes here to rest and build up layers of mostly coarse sand with charcoal and plant debris and over time this forms a most beautiful alluvial soil. In the meantime this same natural phenomenon also has the effect of blocking access to the Walker family's house and farming country.
Michelle's father Bob Jackson has bought a total of approx. 1600h hectares of land here since 2006 and run Angus and Angus cross cows on alluvial creek flats of improved pastures, lucerne and also grow grain that runs up the Hungerford Creek Valley for 14km to the top set of yards.
"Our target market is MSA compliant anti-biotic free market through NH Foods abattoir at Wingham, along with domestic trade vealers."
"We culled heavily in the dry - that was a long term decision for the health of our country and our cattle and our business. We were happy when the rains returned but so too did the sand, and since October 25 last year we have had no income from cattle or hay because of our closed access."
After drought in 2006 the June '07 flood that beached the Pasha Bulker at Newcastle came swift and fast and kicked off a change in geomorphology that has left the road crossing under more and more sand.
This year's flood came slowly compared to the swift inundation in 2007, but the sand slug it delivered was no less impressive and now the council road has become the stream bed while the old water course is so full of sand that it lies high and dry.
The Muswellbrook Shire Council has cleared the sand in the past but now constrained by budget the priority of servicing a road that links only one family has slipped to the point where the road is now closed.
To access their home the Walker family drive a tractor over the creek further upstream and cross through paddocks to access the council road upstream of the silted crossing.
"Before the sand slug arrived we used to spray for blackberry along the creek bed and the top of the bank was higher than the roof of the tractor, now the sand in the creek is level with the banks, and the council road and causeway has been swallowed up. The creeks have changed course. Until the creek, road and causeway issues are resolved we've decided not to pay our rates and they can take us to court if they please, not forgetting it has been 14 years since we first raised these issues, the council and the Local Land Services call this a natural event and have washed their hands of it for too long."
Mr Walker said they might be the only family in the Hungerford valley, but with three houses on the property and a need for employees to live on-site, there could be more people living along the road if it was clear of debris and sand.
In the past when dairy farms had share croppers nine families lived along the road and the Walkers don't see why some of that population couldn't return to work cattle and cropping country now isolated by sand and debris.
"We can't expect families to live like we do with only tractor access to our property," he said.
"Currently the cattle market is the highest producers have seen it, and we can't get our cattle in or out, the creek issues are rapidly affecting our business, our family, and our mental well-being.
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