It is obvious that because we are out of sight and out of mind for most people that is how we are being treated.

I feel very sorry for people down south in drought with wind blowing the topsoil off their paddocks but hopefully the soil lands somewhere to do some good.

Out here we know where our local soil and gravel is going. It is being used to fill up waterways which heads out to sea.

At Kajabbi the main crossing is known by locals as Bottom Crossing. It has just had 4000 tonne of material laid on it to wash away. Other crossings have had similar put in them.This has all been done in recent weeks leading up to the wet.

As a rule the river runs before Christmas so we would be lucky to get a month out of this material. Before this flood money came about Bottom Crossing would have had a skim of material put across it which allowed trucks and vehicles to get through. This also allowed the base of the river to be kept firm. The crossings were always there.

This skim of soil went with the lay of the land and was then rolled. This was before all this money started getting thrown around.

After the rain the crossing would be still there to a certain extent and they would just grade the river gravel off it. Now it is built up ridiculously to gouge banks and the bottom of the hard river bed and trees out.

There is no safety involved with this overwork of machinery and material. We have seen vehicles get bogged and slip off the sides of these built up crossings. If the river is on its way up it is very dangerous.

The river has a very hard base and they mess with it like the gullies.

They rip the gullies and hard bases of crossings to mix material with them.

When rain comes material goes and washaways form.

There was a time you would be able to travel around pretty comfortably on these roads any time of the year. Every second person would even have a 2wd vehicle even. The odd running creek would pull you up.

Now with all this machinery work and material washing away it is a battle to get around. You need a 4wd.

Roads were built for Lake Julius, Gunpowder and Cuthbert Mines and there were none of these messes put in the countryside then like there is now from these undesignated and designated pits. There was actually a lot more traffic on roads then.

Now our main traffic is gravel trucks chopping up 40km road causing blowouts corrugation and ruts whilst putting material down in any little gully creek or river to be washed away.

A section approx. 20km has just been laid with about 3500 tonnes of material just recently to go down into gullies and creeks.

Millions of litres of water getting wasted on road. Water holes getting drained for unnecessary work. A lot of this money is built up we believe from machinery hours even putting in these undesignated pits.

Areas where these undesignated and designated pits are and these roads and crossings will never be the same again. All from overwork of machinery.

Everyone has told us that they need to spend the money or else they won't get similar money back next year. This agreeance has come from all different work positions.

Seems to be that where there is more gullies and creeks the more money is spent to put material in them. We do believe that some roads need money spent on them but not to this extent or this late in the year. There are people out there that are frightened to say too much as they are frightened they may not get their road done.

We should all stand up to this matter because a lot of this scarring due to it being so brittle is having detrimental effects on the landscape and the waterways.

This is rough hilly and brittle country but it is marvellous country. It can handle drought, fires and floods but it just can't handle the machinery getting about.

Councils are promoting this country for tourism and yet the continuation of this roadwork in this area is only causing problems and unsightly eyesores everywhere.

Ronnie Hall, "Gereta" Station