Western Australia’s major freight route, the Eyre Highway, could be closed for days as authorities fight an out-of-control bushfire near Balladonia. The closure, along almost 400km between Norseman and Caiguna, has left travellers and truck drivers in limbo.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 On a farm outside of Salmon Gums, two road trains worth of sheep are stuck in transit.
00:07 So there's about 1,490 wither merino lambs here at the moment.
00:15 On Wednesday afternoon a bushfire reached the Ayr Highway, closing the state's largest
00:20 freight route and leaving thousands of animals with nowhere to go.
00:24 The call started about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon and by 5 o'clock we had these guys all here.
00:30 When there's a crisis everyone just sort of helps out when the call comes.
00:35 The bushfire has burned about 300km east in the Great Western Woodlands for weeks.
00:41 But a change in conditions yesterday finally saw it reach the road.
00:46 It's the second time fire has closed the highway this summer and four years since a major bushfire
00:52 shut it for 12 days. Some say this one should have been put out much earlier.
00:57 Act sooner, like when the fire's small and not really hot and a big raging inferno, let's deal with it.
01:03 It's been a waiting game for many road users.
01:06 If you were planning on travelling the Nullarbor from Western Australia today, this is as far as you would have got.
01:12 Just outside of Norseman, where countless truck drivers and travellers are parked up waiting for the road to reopen.
01:18 Bugger everyone around for their trips and their schedules and whatnot.
01:22 It's just going to put everyone behind for a few days.
01:24 Heading to Melbourne with a load of meat pies and sausage rolls.
01:28 We did have a date we had Monday set for unload time but that's been blown right out of the water.
01:35 Not too hot, which is good, but yeah, just want to get home, over it.
01:39 Although some did make the most of the downtime.
01:42 I've just been sleeping mainly and YouTube.
01:46 The Department of Fire and Emergency Services was planning to escort some truck drivers with urgent freight tonight.
01:53 For everyone else, it could be days before the road reopens.
01:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]