Recent landslide on Araluen Road near Merricumbene landlocks Deua River Valley residents

On Friday, May 7 rock and debris fell onto the roadway and completely blocked the road around 43km west of Moruya, landlocking residents.

It was the second landslide in six months on Araluen Road, after the first occurred closer to the Moruya end last November, caused by flood waters exacerbating damage from the 2019-20 bushfires.

Following the November landslide, the road was closed to non-residents entirely and access to Moruya was via an unmarked and difficult combination of fire trails.

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The most recent landslide occurred towards the Braidwood end of the road, and effectively landlocked residents with access to emergency vehicles near impossible, produce rotting on trucks and residents facing other inconveniencies.

Deua River Valley resident Patricia Gardiner said a medical emergency earlier in the week highlighted the need for urgent action.

"The medical emergency that occurred last Monday, May 3, a suspected heart problem, was dealt with by an ambulance from Braidwood as Moruya didn't have a 4WD available," she said.

"The ambulance got lost twice on its way to Moruya ending up on a goat track to Mt Wandera tower and [they] were most relieved to finally make it to Moruya hospital."

The weekend road closures caused by the latest landslide were felt by holiday makers.

"There are three National Park camping grounds that were booked out during the holiday periods and long weekends," Ms Gardiner said.

"These camp grounds are between the two landslides and can no longer be accessed by campers."

Ms Gardiner said Eurobodalla Shire Council, responsible for the section of road impacted, had taken too long to respond to the issue.

"It is now over six months since the first landslide and council are still 'investigating'," she said.

"All the slip sites along the rest of the road continue to fall apart as can be seen in photos, the flags have been there for six months, and no work has been done."

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On Saturday council made a geotechnical assessment after the recent landslide and warned there would be no easy fix.

Council's infrastructure director Warren Sharpe OAM said the road could not simply be cleared and re-opened to traffic due to instability on both the high and low sides of the road.

"Initial inspections were undertaken in daylight on Saturday, and we were out there again today with a geotechnical specialist," he said.

"The longitudinal cracking on the low side means part of the road is now falling away over a length of several hundred metres as well as the landslide from the high side."

During the inspection of the road, council officers reported further landslides had also occurred at the closed section approximately 23km from Moruya at Knowles Creek.

Mr Sharpe said drill rigs were onsite this week to take core samples along the alternate route being investigated, but warned further rain predicted could have more impacts on the area.

Access to Araluen Road east of the landslide at Merricumbene is now only available from Moruya using the temporary detour road via Mount Wandera and access west of this landslide is only available from Braidwood.