Noosa Hinterland residents have been impacted by a significant landslip that is expected to block their main road for up to six months.
An area near 359 Black Mountain Road, Black Mountain, experienced the landslip on Friday 25 February as a result of the extreme weather event experienced across the shire.
Black Mountain resident and Noosa Country Cat Hotel owner Amy Langley said the community was stranded for a number of days as their only other road out was flooded.
“A lot of people were cut off from work, school, loved ones, and accessing essentials like visiting the supermarkets or doctor,” she said.
A neighbour highlighted her concern for timely medical attention in the case of an emergency, with no ideal locations for a helicopter to land.
“This is a concern for all of us up here, especially when Andersons Road/Slate Creek is flooded,” Ms Langley said.
“It’s a dirt road which is single lane and very steep with blind corners in parts, so it’s not an ideal road to travel.
“There have been residents close to the landslip evacuated from their homes. These people are the worst impacted, living in temporary accommodation until it’s safe to return.”
Council has engaged a consulting engineer to assess the site and have identified one home where residents are currently not permitted to enter.
Based on advice from the consulting engineer, Council plans to establish an alternate access driveway for this resident to give them pedestrian and vehicle access to their home.
Council is also scoping some improvement work to Middle Creek Road and Andersons Road while the diversion is in place.
Ms Langley said the landslip had impacted local businesses such as her own, as the distance to reach them has tripled.
“The distance for clients to travel to get to my business has gone from 7km from Cooroy to around 24km,” she said.
“Unfortunately there have been a few cancellations. So it’s a loss in revenue and it’s a fair hit to a small business like mine. I expect that huge impact to continue unfortunately.”
Black Mountain resident and business owner Heidi Veraa wants to see more immediate action from the Council.
“I live behind the landslip and run Sundara Ayurveda Retreat Centre on the opposite side of it,“ she said.
“A business can fold in six months and Council has said that we are a priority, but we’re not seeing any action on that.
“Council says Andersons Road is safe for two-wheel drives but I drove it this morning in a four-wheel drive and there are massive potholes.
“We have guests who are finding the road unsafe as it floods every time it storms. I have staff that we have kept on throughout the whole pandemic. We’re still getting bookings but there’s also a lot of cancellations.”
As bins cannot be serviced at this time, Cleanaway has delivered 20 bins (10 refuse and 10 recycle) to the end of Black Mountain Road for household rubbish and recycling.
“We’re grateful for the bins being put in but there’s 10 bins for between 30 to 50 households and it’s just not enough,” Ms Veraa said.
On Monday 7 March surveyors set up survey pins for monitoring and surveying the extent of the slip.
Council will then use this data to assess the extent of the work required to address the landslip and advise the community of the next steps, with initial discussions indicating the road could be closed for up to six months.
“The road to get out to Black Mountain is now fairly sacred to us and we need to keep it intact,” Ms Langley said.
“The more sightseers that we get out to have a look at the landslip, the worse our access road will get.
“Our community very kindly asks for the sightseers to be understanding of this and avoid unnecessary travel.”
Ms Langley said the close-knit community has really banded together to support each other.
“There are people who are doing it tougher than us,” she said.
“There are people who have lost everything in these floods, so we feel that we are lucky and we will get through this.
“My husband and I created a Black Mountain Landslide Updates 2022 page on Facebook to assist with important communication and offer support. It’s been wonderful, particularly for those needing to know if the Andersons Road causeway is under water or not.”
TransLink has engaged an operator to run an additional service for students on the western side of the landslip. The service will transport students from either Federal State School or the intersection of Andersons Rd and Middle Creek Rd, depending on the destination. On the eastern side, an operator has organised a pickup area on Black Mountain Road. TransLink can be contacted on 07 5452 1800 for more information.
