By Abbey Cannan
Black Mountain residents have spent another five days stranded from essential services with their only access point flooded, while a landslide on the main road continues to shift.
Geotechnical engineers are continually finding surprises related to the landslide that occurred in late February, and the recent wet weather has exacerbated the situation.
In a recent update Noosa Council said they remained confident of finding a suitable solution but required more time on the site.
Black Mountain resident and Noosa Country Cat Hotel owner Amy Langley said their main concern was access to emergency services, including Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) in the case of a structural fire or a car accident.
“If a QFES truck needed to get to a property up here or to retrieve someone from a car that’s gone off an embankment; there’s just no chance for them to access us,“ she said.
“There was a little boy who was badly burnt and his mother actually had to walk over the landslide to get him to a Queensland Ambulance vehicle.“
Resident Tabatha Harvey told ABC she carried Blake across the destroyed road to an ambulance to save paramedics a 30-minute detour after he sustained significant burns to 19 per cent of his body.
She also had to carry her young son back across the landslide to get home from hospital in Brisbane on Tuesday night.
“For residents to have to walk across a landslide that the council says is deeply unsafe, to get access to emergency services – it’s just awful,“ Sundara Ayurveda Retreat Centre owner Heidi Veraa said.
“There is a man who has quadriplegia who relies on his carers and his carers can’t get through,“ Heidi said.
“There’s over 250 people affected by this. If people can’t get into our business, we can’t get paid.“
As the owner of Noosa Country Cat Hotel, Amy agreed it was affecting her livelihood.
“I am losing business as a lot of people are choosing to steer clear because of the dirt road access,“ she said.
“I’m really aware that other people have it far worse than us, but our livelihood is our ability to put food on the table for our children and pay our mortgage.
“People purchased in certain areas knowing that roads would go under with significant rain. We didn’t. We purchased on a sealed tar road with no creek crossings after years of living remotely on cattle stations in the Northern Territory and western QLD.“
In an update on 13 May, Council confirmed they had secured support from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority to start work on building a temporary, elevated crossing over Slate Creek on Anderson Road.
“It will be much higher than the current crossing and should provide a more resilient community access point. We expect to have machinery and materials on site shortly subject to weather. Work will start as soon as possible,“ Council said.
“We have held further talks with emergency services officials and they remain aware of the current situation at Black Mountain. They have reiterated the importance of contacting Triple zero for any emergency.“
