Kathryn Maxwell, Southcoast Health & Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) - 9 September 2025

Kathryn Maxwell, Southcoast Health & Sustainability Alliance (SHASA), presented to Council at the Public Access Session on 9 September 2025.

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to address Council. I am presenting on behalf of Southcoast Health & Sustainability Alliance (SHASA), a local community Not for Profit organisation championing renewable energy, sustainability and community resilience projects across the Eurobodalla Shire.  Following the 2019/20 Black Summer Bushfires, SHASA has taken an active and practical interest in community resilience and disaster preparedness, including the creation of eight heatwave and emergency havens throughout the Eurobodalla Shire, with another 4 in the pipeline.

The Congo Road closure goes to the very heart of Council’s legislative responsibilities and moral obligations to the Eurobodalla community. Under the NSW Emergency Services & Rescue Act 1989, the General Manager of the Eurobodalla Shire Council (or their nominee) is designated as the Chairperson of the Eurobodalla Local Emergency Management Committee (LEMC), which is responsible for preparing the Local Emergency Management Plan. The Local Committee’s duties also include planning for the prevention of, preparation for, response to, and recovery from emergencies, including bushfires, within the local government area.

The current closure of north Congo Road constitutes a serious and readily identifiable risk, which impacts transport and access options and magnifies bushfire hazard by limiting response options. It also increases risks with local fire and drowning hazards, as well as ambulance response times for emergency events. These effects clearly fall within the remit of the Local Emergency Management Committee.

The most serious hazard is significantly diminished access to Congo, Bingie, Meringo and Bergalia during bushfire seasons, as it has transformed a dual access locality into a “one-way-in, one-way-out” locality, with extremely limited evacuation options. This type of hazard was highlighted in the 2020 NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry, the 2020 Commonwealth Bushfire Royal Commission, and NSW RFS Planning for Bushfire Protection Guidelines.

Communities in areas with “one-way-in, one-way-out” roads face significant difficulties in safely and efficiently evacuating during a bushfire. These single-access points become bottlenecks for emergency services and for residents trying to flee, increasing the risk of entrapment and loss of life. Factors like panic, thick smoke, and widespread ember attack further complicate evacuation efforts in such communities. This situation poses significant risks during large-scale fires, creating complex evacuation challenges.

These risks are further magnified because there is no recognized Safe Space identified for the Congo locality nor is there a local Rural Fires Service brigade, and the sole access road is extremely hazardous during fires because it goes through thickly forested country, including Eurobodalla National Park. The lowest risk escape route from Congo is northwards via the beach which is only suitable for able-bodied people. This risk is exacerbated by the higher than average proportion of older and often infirm people that reside in the Eurobodalla Shire including in the Congo area.

So long as north Congo Road remains closed, the hazards outlined above will all be unnecessarily amplified with potentially catastrophic consequences.

In addition to its emergency management responsibilities, Eurobodalla Council also has a legislated obligation to the community regarding duty of care. In NSW, a council's duty of care extends to situations where it should have reasonably foreseen that its actions or omissions could lead to harm and create a significant public liability risk. For this to be established, the risk of harm must have been known, or ought to have been known, by the council and the risk is not insignificant. The current Congo Road closure clearly meets this criteria because Council’s own Eurobodalla Local Emergency Management Plan indicates that bushfires are “likely”, with a “Major” consequence rating and an “Extreme” risk priority.

The Congo community has been advised that arrangements are in place to open Congo Road during emergencies, but these have already proven to be unreliable in practice. From an emergency response perspective, it is unrealistic and dangerous to expect prompt reopening of the northern section of Congo Road during emergency conditions which are likely to be accompanied by significant telecommunication failure and other disruptions, as was experienced during the Black Summer Bushfires.

The 2024 NSW State Disaster Mitigation Plan recognizes the importance of suitable evacuation routes as a key risk reduction measure, noting that “Road infrastructure should have the capacity to meet the needs of mass evacuations.” This guidance has now been formalised, with the NSW Disaster Adaptation Planning Guidelines released in August this year indicating that “investing in evacuation capacity upgrades to local, regional and State roads” is a suitable project for Regional Disaster Adaptation Planning. SHASA recommends that Council explore this avenue as a means of obtaining the funding required to reopen north Congo Road. This will require Council making representations to our local member Dr Michael Holland and relevant NSW Government Ministers. SHASA would be happy to support such representations.

While SHASA’s presentation today has focussed on disaster preparedness and community resilience impacts arising from this road closure, we also share wider community concerns regarding the significant additional social, economic and health-care impacts on the Congo, Bingie, Bergalia and Meringo communities arising from the closure of north Congo Road. We also note that the increased travel distances imposed upon residents and visitors to the Congo locality are causing a significant escalation in harmful greenhouse gas emissions which will fuel further climate-change.

Until Congo Road is fully reopened with a road suitable for emergency vehicles, buses and mass evacuations, Eurobodalla Council will be maintaining a hazardous situation at odds with recommendations of both the Commonwealth and NSW Commissions of enquiry into the Black Summer Bushfires as well as its legislated responsibilities for emergency management and duty of care obligations to the broader Eurobodalla community.

We have been fortunate to experience a series of relatively benign fire seasons in the Eurobodalla over the last few years, but extreme seasons are inevitable in the future and we need to prepare for them. The reopening of north Congo Road is a key element in boosting Eurobodalla’s future disaster preparedness and community resilience.

Thank you,

Kathryn Maxwell,
President
SHASA