Megalong Valley businesses cut off by road damage, drop in business more than halved

Some 40 businesses operating out of the Megalong are suffering due to the damage to the roads from multiple flooding events. With one road in and out, some businesses said their customer base had more than halved.

Director of Infrastructure, Economy and Property Services, Jeff Roorda, told the Megalong community meeting last month that in June this year there were 25 landslides in the Mountains and now there were 66. Of those 66, 26 of these are located on Megalong Road - with one million square metres of damaged roads needing repairs or resurfacing in the Mountains.

Mr Roorda estimated it would take two years to fully repair Megalong Road. Council was re-doing temporary repairs to roads in the Megalong, making funding applications and "marking up failed sections", but repeated bad weather had hampered the geotechnical, tree removal and other processes. A sinkhole opened up on the road last October and there is another on Aspinall Road in the Valley.

Unstable trees are still falling on Megalong Road and drivers are reporting near misses with trucks driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid the landslip damage.

Business spokeswoman and resident, Catherine Harris, AO, the chair of Harris Farm Markets, said: "We don't want to become a ghost town".

"The Megalong Valley is not just a group of residents, we are a thriving, productive community that contribute not just by paying rates to the Blue Mountains council.

"As Myles Dunphy used to say we are the 'heart and lungs around Sydney'. In addition to the serious needs of our community, there are more than 40 businesses in the valley totally dependent on these roads - business over the past two years has been drastically affected."

In July this year, for the second time in four months, the Megalong was cut off from civilisation with a zip line used to bring in supplies.

The community was told at the meeting the valley was a top priority, but council did not have the resources at a local level and needed state and federal government help for the approximately $100 million for landslide repairs/replacements and $5 million for road sections.

At the meeting, Mr Roorda explained the process council was required to follow to apply for disaster recovery grant funding. Council was doing all it could to secure that funding, he said.

He also explained it had been a difficult time for the city. The Blue Mountains, like other parts of NSW, was declared a natural disaster after torrential rain and flooding in March 2021, followed by an even more intense storm in July 2022 (with 418mm of rain in the three days from Sunday, 3 July).

The damage bill from natural disasters, throughout the Mountains, now topped $400 million.

The area has been struggling with disasters since the fires of 2019.

Ms Harris said there were three wineries/wedding venues, the popular tearooms, 30 cabins for AirBnB, three cartage businesses, two road repair businesses, two olive vineyards, a number of cattle farms, an animal boarding business, two horse-riding establishments, a horse agistment farm and a large horse-breeding business and a "pony club with legend status in NSW".

"The Megalong community employs more than 100 people many who need to come in and out to work every day. We have thousands of tourists who come down to see this amazing piece of the Blue Mountains. We need suppliers, transport and customers to have access to keep us sustainable.

A spokesman from the Megalong Valley Tea Rooms told the assembled group his customer base had "more than halved" in recent times. He said the sign telling visitors the road was closed was a "disaster for business".

Other roads in the Megalong also have significant damage and council was trying to do repairs in the evening.

The community was told that all of NSW is a disaster zone so there was a shortage of contractors.