Scabbing Flat Bridge - Geurie Incorporated Association

25/05/2026

📢 Have your say on changes to planning consultation in NSW

The NSW Government is proposing changes to how communities participate in planning decisions as part of major reforms to create a faster, fairer and more outcomes-focused planning system.

Right now, there are more than 100 different Community Participation Plans across NSW, making it confusing and inconsistent for communities to know how and when to get involved.

The NSW Government is proposing a single statewide Community Participation Plan, making consultation clearer, more consistent, and ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to shape the places where they live and work.

📌 Proposed changes include:

• Extending minimum consultation periods for state‑level strategic plans (including Regional Plans and the State Plan) from 45 to 60 days
• Standardising neighbour notification for Complying Development, with 7 days’ notice before work begins
• Reducing and standardising the types of local development applications that councils must publicly exhibit, focusing on those with the highest impact

📝 How to have your say: Two documents are now available for feedback

✅ Draft Community Participation Plan
✅ Discussion Paper

Submissions are open until 5pm Wednesday 3 June 2026.

🔗To provide feedback and for more information visit https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/draftplans/exhibition/have-your-say-proposed-statewide-community-participation-plan?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Planning+bulletin+for+local+government+8+May+2026&utm_source=salesforce

📧You can also contact the project team with any additional questions at [email protected]

Your feedback will help shape the final plan, don’t miss your chance to get involved.

23/05/2026

It has been nearly 900 days since this debacle started.

For almost two and a half years, the hard-working farmers, graziers, and businesses of the Central West have been forced to shoulder the burden = paying extra for fuel, losing precious labour hours, and rerouting their lives just to manage without a bridge, or having the bridge closed for 3 days a week, or having the weight restriction on it, or having the width restriction on it…. It is have exhausting…

It feels like a true David & Goliath battle.

While Sydney seems content to keep taking, regional NSW is expected to just "put up with it."

We are drawing the line.

This isn't just another meeting.

At the upcoming 2026 AGM, a very serious motion and vote will be taking place.

This is democracy in action, and we need every single voice in the room to make it count.

🗓️ When: Thursday, 25 June 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
📍 Where: Mitchell Inn, Geurie

If you are tired of being ignored and treated poorly, don't miss out.

Let’s stand together, protect our livelihood, and force the action our community deserves. 🤝🔥

11/05/2026

Heritage should preserve our past, not paralyze our future.

The release of the NSW Heritage Strategy is a welcome move for the preservation of our state’s historic buildings.

However, when critical public infrastructure like the Scabbing Flat Bridge is cited as a triumph of heritage policy (despite a total lack of consultation) the line has been crossed.

Let’s be clear: This bridge at Geurie needs to be dismantled and replaced to meet modern standards.

When "preservation" comes at the cost of productivity and safety, it ceases to be a policy and becomes a liability.

Impacted farming groups and transport users will not stand by while their livelihoods are regulated into obsolescence. If this is the direction of the new strategy, expect legal recourse to follow.

Keep heritage where it belongs: in our history books and architecture, not blocking our arterial roads.

🏰 This Heritage Month, the Minns Labor Government has unveiled the first-ever NSW Heritage Strategy. It is a landmark plan to modernise the state heritage system, tell more diverse stories of NSW’s history and make it easier for people to care for heritage items. The inaugural Strategy delivers a five-year vision to build a heritage system that is inclusive, adaptable and better supports the people of NSW.

Below for more info. And tell me, what town is depicted in this photo?

Penny Sharpe MLC Heritage for NSW

06/03/2026

Geurie public meeting disappointment - Scabbing Flat Bridge
"We just want a new bridge!”
Locals frustrated with bureaucracy
By Mark Griggs, WDL and Tony Graham, Binjang Community Radio

POLITE FRUSTRATION could be the term used describing the 70-plus attendees of the Scabbing Flat Bridge public meeting on Monday afternoon at Geurie Bowling Club.
Frustration, because many of the questions of upwards of 15 people went unanswered or taken negatively by the sole Transport for NSW representative, Damien Pfeiffer, Executive Director, Partnerships and Integration – West Regional Integration Planning,
Integration and Passenger.
As well as many farmers, business and interested people attending, Scabbing Flat Bridge Action Committee chair Michelle Tomkins was accompanied by local state member Dugald Saunders, DRC mayor Josh Black, deputy-mayor Phillip Toynton, councillor Richard Ivey and DRC acting general manager, Luke Ryan.
Ms Tomkins said feedback from the meeting in general was pretty negative.
“Even one local, Tracey Rushton stated that everything put forward gained a negative answer.
“So, it sounds as though you have already made your decision,” she said.
Mr Pfeiffer described a new process underway with a review into timber truss bridges throughout the state primarily with a “fit for purpose” filter.
The future of Scabbing Flat Bridge will be determined at the end of this process towards the end of June this year, however there will be no community consultation in the process.
However, Ms Tomkins said her concern with the new review is that they (the department) were going down the exact same path as last time.
“The last review in 2012 where heritage was the focus, and this time the review is less public than what it was in 2012,” she said.
“There’ll be no community consultation.
“So, I asked where’s the economic assessment, the productivity assessment, and safety assessments.
“This has to be a balanced review.”
She said Mr Pfeiffer assured us it would be a balanced review.
“He answered they would look at economics, productivity and safety which would be done internally in his department and would look at other departments for support,” Ms Tomkins said.
Clr Richard Ivey suggested that in parallel with the review in to
lifting the heritage order, preliminary planning should be undertaken now for siting a new bridge to save time on the inevitable requirement for a new bridge.
He called for a feasibility and costing study to be implemented as soon as possible.
"However, that was responded with a can’t do," Ms Tomkins said.
She said they were told the bridge reconstruction would take six months, but it’s now two years.
“We were originally told when the bailey bridge was gone, it was never coming back.
“It’s coming back.
“If they want the heritage bridge to remain, that’s fine, but we need a new bridge to meeting today’s needs.”

04/03/2026

When critical infrastructure (like the Scabbing Flat Bridge in Geurie) becomes the bottleneck, everything upstream:

〰️ investment,
〰️ innovation,
〰️ efficiency

is compromised.

A bridge isn’t just timber and steel; it’s an economic artery.

The Land
Financial Review
The Guardian
Wellington & District Leader
Daily Liberal
Dubbo Photo News
Australian Politics - SMH/The Age
The Australian
The Betoota Advocate

Mayor Josh Black - Dubbo Regional Council
Councillor Phillip Toynton, Deputy Mayor of Dubbo Regional Council

Dugald Saunders MP

Andrew Gee MP

Stephen Lawrence MLC

How do we create a better future?

What can the local community do, to create a positive change?

01/03/2026

Geurie - It’s Small : But Strategically Located

Despite having only a few hundred residents, Geurie sits between major freight corridors:
• Newell Highway
• Mitchell Highway

That makes it quietly important for agricultural transport.

01/03/2026

01/03/2026

Tomorrow afternoon Monday, 2 March at 4pm til 5pm, the Geurie community gather to discuss the Scabbing Flat Bridge.

How many days do you think the Geurie community have waited for action? For some kind of progress? Would you believe us, if we said it was nearly 900 days since the weight restriction was placed on the bridge in November 2023?

Please, join us. All welcome.

This is likely to be the last time the community can show Transport for NSW that it is completely inappropriate that the Scabbing Flat Bridge is retained in its current format. Built for conditions in 1907, and a safety issue - it is time for a new bridge.

Please join us.

Send a message to learn more

17/10/2025

As Geurie grows and the city of Dubbo expands to the East, a need for integrated transport planning is critical.

If you haa specific issue about transport… jump into the link below & let the NSW Government know your thoughts.

There is a nifty option to drop a pinpoint on the map and make comment regarding a particular transport area.

Michelle Tomkins of Scabbing Flat Bridge - Geurie Incorporated Association is encouraging locals to participate and drop a pin.

Michelle says, “The more people we can get to do this the more it will highlight the issue with Scabbing Flat Bridge. I look forward to seeing a lot of pins dropped. Thanks in advance for your support.”



[Central West and Orana | Strategic Regional Integrated Transport Plans | Have Your Say](https://www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/sritp/central-west-and-orana)

[https://www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/sritp/central-west-and-orana](https://www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/sritp/central-west-and-orana)ve

Strategic Regional Integrated Transport Plan

02/07/2025

In the Leader this week:-
* Cameron Park to get more toilets at long last after council motion passed .
* Council lends support for new Scabbing Flat Bridge.
* Museum has a win in council budget
* Local singer Millie Mills in town to launch new single on Binjang radio
* Update on Wellington Eisteddfod
* TV Guide, Puzzles, Rugby Union and Soccer reports and photos and lots, lots more