That is the message from Murumbigee Council Mayor and Sturt Highway Taskforce chair Ruth McRae OAM, who expressed frustration at the highway being ignored in the recent Federal Budget.
The Sturt Hwy has been described as a key corridor required to deliver these projects safety, particularly in the Murrumbidgee region where four renewable projects are proposed.
The taskforce has previously met with the Federal Government to advocate for urgent investment in road upgrades, safety improvements and driver education.
Estimates show that between $600 million and $800 million is needed to bring the highway up to a safe, fit-for-purpose standard.
Stretching about 605km through south eastern Australia, the Sturt Hwy is a critical east-west freight and transport route connecting regional communities and major centres across NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
Every year, the highway carries more than 150,000 trailers, with some sections seeing more than 300,000 trailers annually. Families, farmers, freight operators, small businesses and tourists rely on the road every single day.
At the same time, the highway is a major route for the renewable energy rollout, with oversized and overmass vehicles transporting wind turbine components, blades, towers and solar infrastructure to major renewable projects across the region.
The Murrumbidgee, Hay and Edward River local government areas are at the forefront of this transition, but Cr McRae said these communities are being left to “manage the impacts without adequate support”.
Road safety underscores the urgency, with 277 crashes recorded on the Sturt Highway between July 2019 and June 2024.
Of these, 17.7 per cent resulted in serious injury and 5.4% were fatal.
“The Sturt Highway has become a key freight route for renewable energy projects, yet there has been no meaningful investment to ensure it can safely handle the increasing freight task,” Cr McRae said.
“People in regional communities are seeing larger and more frequent heavy vehicle movements on a road that was never designed for this level of demand. They are worried about safety, and rightly so.
“Regional Australia is helping drive the nation’s energy future, but communities along the Sturt Highway are being left to carry the burden without the infrastructure investment they desperately need.
“Rural and regional Australians are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for basic safety, fair investment and recognition of the pressures these projects are placing on regional communities.
“The lack of investment places motorists, freight operators and local communities at risk, and may also impact freight efficiency, emergency response times and regional economic activity.”
The taskforce is calling on the Federal Government to commit meaningful funding to upgrade the Sturt Hwy, and work alongside local councils to ensure infrastructure keeps pace with development and growing freight demands.
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