The remote community of Cosmo Newberry on Yilka Country in WA's Central Goldfields is mourning the loss of its only school teacher.
The beloved teacher, referred to as Mrs JC for cultural reasons, was killed in a car accident last Friday as she was travelling home along the Great Central Road.
The teacher's death is a story becoming too familiar for remote communities in the area, as with large sections of the Great Central Road still unsealed it is now a notoriously dangerous route to travel.
A leader of Cosmo Newberry, referred to as HM also for cultural reasons, said the passing of Mrs JC had rocked the community.
"For the children, it's really devastating … she was the only teacher for the Cosmo Newberry school," HM said.
"There's about a dozen kids that go to school here, so they have a really personal relationship with the teacher."
"She was in her 60s so she was really like a grandmother figure to them," HM said.
No alternative route
Mrs JC was required to travel to Laverton every Friday afternoon on school business and it was on her drive home, along a particularly poor section of the Great Central Road, that the accident occurred.
"The Great Central is the only road [with] access into Laverton, and there have been quite a few accidents in the last couple of months due to the condition of the road," HM said.
In the state budget released earlier this year, $300 million was allocated to finish sealing the Great Central Road in its entirety, but due to complications surrounding road ownership and native title, work has not started.
HM said the Yilka traditional owners had been negotiating with the local shire and Main Roads WA for the past year and while it was a slow process, he was hopeful progress was on the horizon.
Further north, in the Shire of Wiluna, resident Tim Carmody echoed concerns and frustration over the state of the Great Central Road.
As the owner of Prenti Downs Station, Mr Carmody regularly travels along unsealed sections of the road, often with livestock in tow.
"The condition of the road at the moment is diabolical," Mr Carmody said.
"Anywhere else in the state, it would be closed … anywhere else in the state, the number of fatalities that are on this road would be front page news."
Mr Carmody said he often saw heavy haulage vehicles forced to travel at a speed of just 20 kilometres an hour, or on the wrong side of the road, in an attempt to "mitigate the roughness of the corrugations."
Mr Carmody said it had reached the point where locals wondered "whether we're going to come across someone that's in trouble" every time they drove down the road.
Flow-on effects of poor road condition
Higher freight costs to due to poor road conditions can also result in higher costs for remote communities.
Mr Carmody said the terrible quality of the road had flow-on effects that put remote communities in the area at a significant disadvantage.
"It increases the cost of food, the cost of medical services; it increases the cost of education, [and] the cost of communication."
"Today, we're seeing a big change [towards electric vehicles] … but for the people that are out there, it would be just nice for them to be able to drive down the road safely," Mr Carmody said.
