Editor Lyndon Keane says the road crews responsible for making the Peninsula Developmental Road driveable after each wet season are the unsung community heroes of Cape York. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
Every community, especially those as remote as ours on Cape York, has those people who go above and beyond to ensure where we work, play and call home is the best version of itself, usually without making a fuss or asking for anything in return.
You know the sort of individual I’m talking about. There’s a good chance you might even be one of them.
While there’s no doubt the efforts of all these people contribute to making the Cape one of the most incredible spots in the country to live, there is one group whose praises we should be singing way more than we do, especially when we point our vehicles at the Peninsula Developmental Road (PDR) after the wet season. That’s right, I’m talking about the guys and girls who make up our road crews.
Unless you’ve seen firsthand the mammoth task facing our road crews when the rain bids us farewell for another season, it’s difficult to grasp just how much of a mess the unsealed sections of the PDR are transformed into annually. Were it a scenario most of us were greeted with in our workplaces, I suspect there would be mass hysteria and sick days being taken left, right and centre until someone else made the kilometres of quagmire go away.
The thing I find most fascinating is that when you talk to them about the work they’re doing, our road crews just shrug if off in favour of a self-deprecating comment. These kings (and queens) among men would rather get back in the cab of their machine and get on with the job than stand in the middle of the PDR being told what an incredible job they’re doing. Knowing some of the maintenance mob, a few would rather have their fingernails removed than be on the receiving end of recognition and thanks, which, for my money, makes their often unacknowledged contribution to Cape York life even more worthy of praise.
Driving between Weipa and Musgrave for the annual Super 8s showdown at the weekend, I pulled up to take some photos and have a yarn to a couple of plant operators to see how early dry season maintenance work was going ahead of the northern migration of the caravanning crowd. When I suggested to one the PDR was looking as good as it had in ages for this time of the year, in spite of the late wet season, he looked down the road, took a Marlboro Man-size draw on his rollie and shook his head.
“I’d like to be further along, but parts have been a total mess – we’re lucky we haven’t been sunk trying to grade the bloody thing,” he offered thoughtfully.
Kings (and queens) among men, I tell you.
I hope when the returned Albanese government does find an interest in remote communities – and the $240 million needed to kick off stage three of the Cape York Region Package – we can get a few extra bucks to install bronzed graders, rollers and water trucks along the track as an homage to our biggest unsung heroes. Until the Federal Government does find its wallet, the reversing buzzers, flashing lights and fountains of water on freshly-rolled dirt will continue to signal our road transport salvation at this time every year.
Whether you’re a tourist or a local, when you pass our road crews on the PDR over coming months, make sure you slow down and give them a honk of gratitude to say thank you. They’re the only reason the fillings aren’t shaking out of your teeth, or why you’re not looking like a mud monster as you curse and attempt to attach a recovery strap to your vehicle.
Anyone who’s driven on the unsealed sections of the Peninsula Developmental Road before annual dry season maintenance has been completed knows just how critical our road crews are to our safety – and sanity. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
