EAST Kimberley agricultural businesses face a tough and expensive road to recovery, in the wake of the Fitzroy River flood.
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With extensive damage to the Great Northern Highway, trucking companies have been forced to double their freight fees to cover extra kilometres travelled from Perth via South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny said an immediate subsidy was needed to relieve the freight cost pressures.
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Mr Dumesny said the detour route through the middle of Australia was 72pc or 2200 kilometres longer by distance and came with a hefty price tag, for which Kimberley businesses were copping the brunt.
Trucking companies have no other choice than to travel from Perth to Port Augusta, up through the centre of Katherine and then across to Kununurra, Mr Dumesny said.
We are arguing for the government to introduce an immediate subsidy for the delivery of all freight.
That includes the return loads from the produce growers, who for example may have late season mangoes.
Those mangoes need to be sent to established markets in Perth, but it is actually going to cost growers more to send produce to those markets.
Mr Dumesny said there were also supplies needed for the East Kimberleys upcoming growing season including fertiliser and agricultural machinery.
As well as the extra kilometres travelled, fuel burn, costs and less available drivers had also contributed to the fee hike.
READ MORE ABOUT THE KIMBERLEY FLOODS:
Mr Dumesny said there had been a technical problem through the South Australian detour with speed limits, triple road trains and a different fatigue regime.
He said these issues added an extra day to the Perth to East Kimberley trip compared to if the distance was covered in WA.
Logistical and technical issues aside, he said uncertainty was the biggest problem of all.
We dont know when we can start running trucks through Fitzroy Crossing with any great certainty, Mr Dumesny said.
That means business decision making by the East Kimberley, businesses, farmers, growers remains uncertain.
If they decide its too expensive to grow a crop or to operate their business then ultimately thats going to reduce business activity in those areas and so transport activity.
It is really time the government sorted this out.
Mr Dumesny said some subsidies were available, they were under the discretionary control of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) incident commander.
He said while this should be the case, the issue was the DFES commander and crews attention was rightfully focused on the flood impacted areas of the West Kimberley, not the economically isolated East Kimberley.
