Marooned by road closure

By Kath Gannaway
NARBETHONG residents marooned for the past month are counting on their lifeline over the Black Spur being re-opened this week.
The Maroondah Highway between Healesville and Narbethong has been closed since 12 February, when fires spread through the catchments on either side of the highway.
Jim Kennedy, publican of the Black Spur Inn told the Mail that the removal and lopping of dangerous trees had been ramped up last week, but was unhappy that it took calls to Melbourne radio stations and making contact with a number of politicians.
“We have been told the road will be open mid-week next week,” Mr Kennedy told the Mail on Friday.
VicRoads is being more conservative, saying they are aiming for mid to late this week.
A spokesperson told the Mail on Monday it was still considered extremely unsafe to drive over the Black Spur, as there were many unstable trees that still needed to be removed.
She said crews had been working over the weekend to get the road open as quickly as possible and would be hoping to get open later in the week.
She said the road had been closed originally on the advice of police and emergency services because it was in an active fire zone.
“Once they were satisfied the road was no longer under fire threat, VicRoads has gone in with an arborist to clear trees and remove trees they consider unsafe, put down line marking where it is required and temporary signage,” she said.
Mr Kennedy opened his hotel as a refuge and a relief centre for Narbethong residents who chose to stay following the fires. He says that while they are undergoing a transition from refuge centre back to business, they are still feeding people who need that support.
The township is effectively dealing with two tragedies.
“We went through the fire and now we’re going through the ongoing tragedy of being locked in,” he said.
“We have black Narbethong and green Narbethong,” he added.
“We don’t have a business up here because there is no-one up here except the locals. We have people who work in Melbourne, Lilydale, Box Hill who are having to go via Alexandra and Yea to get to work, others have just not returned to work.”
Mr Kennedy was relieved last week that a definite timeline had been given, saying the only indication they had had up until then was “maybe three weeks or four weeks”.
He believes however that the whole issue of the Black Spur closure could have been handled better and the road opened much sooner.
The closure of the Black Spur has had a huge impact on the recovery of Narbethong.
“Very early on we had two semis loaded up with things we needed up here, and which we still need,” he said.
“That was waiting in Healesville on the morning the road was closed and it just never got here. It was very depressing because it was all stuff we needed.”
He said people are wanting to move back onto their land to start the recovery process.
Getting caravans without having to work through a maze of red tape and access to tools including axes, chainsaws and other equipment was still a challenge, Mr Kennedy said.