Kate Buckman wipes away tears outside the makeshift tent she and her children are living in after a major landslip isolated her NSW mid north coast home in early March.
She lives in Lower Creek on Kempsey Road — a narrow mountain track that connects Armidale, in the New England region, to Kempsey on the coast.
Heavy rain caused a section of the road to completely collapse, forcing Ms Buckman to move her family from their home to a tent on the other side of the landslip.
Several of Ms Buckman's children live with disabilities and other special needs, so she relies on the road to access their medical care, school, and essential supplies.
"All of the children's needs are on the Kempsey side. It is over three hours to Armidale, but the road is shocking that way as well," she said.
A road of red tape
The road was declassified from a regional road to a local road in 2009, with its upkeep shared between the Kempsey and Armidale councils.
Before the 2019 state election it was promised the road would be reclassified as a regional road.
New England MP Adam Marshall said the reclassification had occurred, but repairs remain the responsibility of local councils.
But in its response, Armidale Regional Council said Transport for NSW had "not given a specific time frame for when the road will be reclassified".
The red tape wrangling adds insult to injury for Ms Buckman, and others like her, whose lives are being impacted by the closure.
Her five-year-old son has Down syndrome and is in remission from leukaemia.
"He's also 80 per cent deaf and has ADHD. We have speech pathology and physiotherapy appointments every fortnight which he absolutely has to attend to learn how to speak and function properly," she said.
Ms Buckman said the only alternative to living in her tent is walking 2 kilometres every day from home to and from the road's collapsed Flying Fox Cutting, which she says is dangerous for them all and impossible for the younger children.
Armidale Council said it is aware of the Buckman family and has put them in touch with Resilience NSW.
Cattle farmers lose livelihoods
Cattle graziers in the Upper Macleay are demanding accountability for the financial impact the collapsed road has caused.
A 4.3-tonne load limit for vehicles on the road prevents farmers from trucking livestock to Kempsey or Armidale to sell.
"If I can't cart stock it's a total stop on my business," said cattle farmer Shane Booth.
Mr Booth had been looking to sell his cattle enterprise and retire but said no one wants to buy his properties with the road the way it is.
"It's pretty depressing. You work hard all your life to set yourself up to retire and then they just take it away from you," he said.
Local tourism businesses have also suffered.
Cracknback Campground owner Beth Akister said she had to cancel all her bookings over the Easter long weekend.
Funding promises
Last week the federal government pledged an additional $312 million in funding to improve roads in northern NSW, including Kempsey Road.
In 2019, nearly $5 million was awarded by the NSW government to upgrade the road.
But that project remains on hold until the road is restored to pre-disaster conditions, which the community said could take years.
Armidale Regional Council's chief of assets and services Alex Manner said "every effort" was being made to "repair the road in multiple locations", with the reconstruction of Flying Fox Cutting expected to take approximately two to three months.
He said the road is a "moving feast of patchwork and repairs" and believes it will take up to three years to completely upgrade the road.
