MUCH NEEDED: Council to carry out long overdue repair works to Flagstaff Hill walking trail
WORKS
Douglas Shire Council will begin repair works to Flagstaff Hill walking track today following numerous calls from regular users and members of the public to Newsport that the track was not being properly maintained.
A Newsport story on October 4 titled, vandalism, hazards and messiness: Pride of Port Douglas or world class eyesore, outlined a number of concerns including damage to a number of handrails, hazards that lined the trail, and ongoing vandalism that was happening on the trail.
Prior to this a Newsport reader wrote a letter to the editor to discuss their concerns about the ongoing condition and state of the track back as early as April 17 this year.
“I just wanted to bring your attention to the overgrown weeds on the amazing path up to the viewpoint over Four Mile beach,” the reader told us.
“It’s such a lovely walk for tourists but the Council are not maintaining it well at all.
“What do we pay our rates for?
Council, through an announcement on their website said the northern section of the trail, the Rex Smeal Park end will be closed from today until December 8 while repair works are carried out.
“The first stage of the upgrade will be installing 14 new prefab concrete steps on the Rex Smeal Park end of the walking track,” the statement said.
“Each step weighs a massive 110 kilograms and the only access is via a steep part of the track.
Each step will need to be manually moved into position and the installation is expected to take seven days.
“Once the steps are in place the contractor will install 33 armour rock plates.
“These sheets of rock armour will shore up parts of the track which have previously been washed away in heavy rainfall events and flooding. This work is estimated to take two weeks.”
Council said further works on the trail are planned for early next year.