Remote community in WA's Pilbara saves $400k of food after truck breaks down
A triple-trailer road train carrying $400,000 worth of food and supplies broke down on the way to a remote WA Indigenous community. (Supplied: Punmu Aboriginal Community)
In short:
A mammoth 36-hour rescue operation has saved a remote West Australian Indigenous community's $400,000 food and supply delivery.
The truck carrying the goods was damaged while travelling along the unsealed road into Punmu, home to about 120 Martu people.
What's next?
The incident has renewed calls for the state and federal governments to invest more in repairing damaged roads in remote Western Australia.
A remote Aboriginal community has completed a mammoth 36-hour recovery of a food and supply delivery needed to feed its residents for the next five months.
The Punmu community, 1,300 kilometres north-east of Perth, orders a bulk food delivery every year to keep shelves stocked over the wet season, when cyclonic rains can flood the only road into the town for weeks or sometimes months.
Community coordinator Edith Costello said the triple-trailer road train carrying about $400,000 worth of food and supplies broke down 25 kilometres from the town early on Sunday morning.
Edith Costello says the community had to resolve the situation on its own. (ABC Pilbara: Alistair Bates)
"I realised we had to get together and make a plan," she said.
"We're probably the third-most remote community in WA, so there isn't anyone to call."
What followed was a mammoth 36-hour recovery effort.
Team effort
Rough conditions on the unsealed road into Punmu had cracked one of the truck's air springs and broken away a large mount on its left side.
Ms Costello sent out the community's mechanic, who did some temporary repairs and ditched the truck's trailers so the driver could take it slowly to the workshop in town.
It took 5 hours to repair the road train. (Supplied: Punmu Aboriginal Community)
Over the next 5 hours, the mechanic removed the left-hand back wheels and repaired the broken parts, before welding everything back in place.
"Meanwhile, staff were flattening and trying to harden the road section that had given way in the hope we could get back to retrieve our trailers," Ms Costello said.
Punmu finance manager Gary Kairn was tasked with ferrying diesel to the stranded trailers so the meat inside could remain refrigerated.
"I've worked in communities for a lot of years and it's really a matter of if you see a job that needs doing, you've just got to have a crack at it,"he said.
"It does build a sense of camaraderie."
Gary Kairn (left) says coming together to tackle the problem built a sense of camaraderie among the Punmu team. (Supplied: Punmu Aboriginal Corporation)
When the repairs were complete, each trailer was collected and driven to the community, with the final pallets unloaded around 6pm on Monday.
"Seeing all the goods loaded into the warehouse and into the freezer at the end of the day was a fantastic outcome," Mr Kairn said.
Rescue reignites roads debate
The incident is further evidence of a road maintenance crisis the local shire has been pleading with state and federal governments to help fix for months.
The Shire of East Pilbara has been struggling with maintaining roads across an area larger than Victoria.
Punmu is one of Western Australia's most remote Indigenous communities, reliant on bulk food deliveries to keep people fed over the wet season. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)
It estimates almost $300 million is required to re-sheet worn-out dirt roads and repair damage from Cyclone Zelia last year.
"The road's been hammered by two cyclones … over the last month we've had a car roll over, we've had vehicles lose wheels," Ms Costello said.
"It's a very difficult road to drive no matter how careful you are."
Ms Costello said she could not understand why the state government could not invest in the Punmu road, when it had given $60 million to Gina Rinehart's Hancock Iron Ore to help seal a road between two of its mines in the same region.
"Why is the government putting money into that road while neglecting other roads which are vital routes?" she said.
"The route through our community goes straight to Alice Springs. It's a lifeline to us, not just for food but for essential services."
Road conditions in the east Pilbara have been in the spotlight this year. (Supplied: Michael King)
The condition of the east Pilbara's roads has attracted attention from political parties on opposite ends of the spectrum.
The Greens' Sophie McNeill and the Nationals' Julie Freeman have both visited Punmu this year to advocate for more state funding.
"It's an incredible story how the Punmu community came together to save this critical food order … but it shouldn't have had to come to that," Ms McNeill said.
"These remote communities need to be better supported by our government, and the state of the roads are just atrocious and it's not viable."
A WA government spokesperson said $11 million in road grants had been given to the Shire of East Pilbara over the past three years, including $700,000 for the Punmu access road.
They did not say whether the government would give the shire the additional money it had requested.