Riverina residents lobby for Wagga council to take action to address 'deadly' Tumbarumba Road

Wagga City Council took fast action in sending repair crews to the large pothole on Tumbarumba Road after distressed residents demanded a solution at the weekend, but the condition of the entire road has one driver refusing to travel along it completely.

On Saturday residents took to social media to warn others of a "large" pothole that had formed on Tumbarumba Road at the Hume Highway end, which falls within the Wagga local government area.

The notorious stretch of road has been in the spotlight for years due to residents raising varying safety concerns - from poor road conditions to a lack of signage given the "dangerous" nature of the road.

It is the same stretch of road that claimed the life of a man involved in a fatal two-truck collision on May 30.

Wagga resident Lee Wolfe frequently travels to Tumbarumba and said the whole road from Ladysmith to the Little Billabong Road turn-off is distraught.

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"It's dangerous in too many sections to count," she said.

"I travel that road regularly to visit ill family in Tumbarumba and it's like a game of Mario Kart - If you're lucky and there's nothing coming in the opposite direction you can move over into the other lane to avoid the potholes to the side, but the ones near the median strip are near impossible to dodge successfully."

Miss Wolfe said all motorists can do is "hold on and hope you don't hit it too hard".

"It doesn't matter what speed you're doing, many of them are deep enough that they're going to do damage sooner or later," she said.

"In its current state, the road is not fit to drive on, it is an accident waiting to happen and I can only hope I'm not the one to be in it."

To avoid the chaos, Miss Wolfe has started avoiding the road altogether, and will now continue on the Hume Highway until she reaches Little Billabong Road - which makes her trips a little longer.

"It's slightly longer, but not by much, but it does cut out the section known as 'Gentle Annie' which is where the road is worst," she said.

A spokesperson for Wagga City Council said they were made aware of the "large pothole" that had formed via a service request and took prompt action to repair it on Monday.

"A jet patcher was dispatched [on Monday morning] to carry out maintenance on the damage in the reported location," the spokesperson said.

But, the fix isn't good enough for many residents who say the already dangerous stretch of road is always worse for wear.

While Wagga City Council has a bigger road network to take care of and a budget the same as much smaller LGAs across the state, residents say the roads tend to turn to crap once you hit the Wagga LGA.

"You know things are bad when the Snowy Valleys Council does a better job maintaining their sections than Wagga does, and it just shows the utter contempt the council seems to have for those living further out towards the boundaries, and those living in the outlying towns for which those roads are the main link to Wagga," Miss Wolfe said.

"You don't expect the road to be absolutely perfect but you do expect them to be safe, and in the current state, Tumbarumba road is not, and you know it's bad when a patient being transferred by ambulance to Wagga complains about the rough ride.

"I wonder what it would take for Wagga Council to sit up and take notice because it seems to be they're wearing blinkers to the situation and pretending all is fine. It's not, that road is dangerous and if it's not fixed, It is going to result in [another] bad accident."

Wagga man Bruce Norton refers to the road as "deadly" and says he now avoids going to Tumbarumba altogether due to not wanting to travel along the stretch.

Mr Norton first called on Wagga City Council to fix Tumbarumba Road at the Wagga LGA end in June of 2021.

It has been more than two years since Mr Norton's calls for help and he says nothing has been done.

"There's a whole lot of structural problems along that part of the road and the minor patchwork they do doesn't fix it - it takes a couple of days before it deteriorates again because there's water running under the road, there's no temporary solution to fixing the road," he said.

Aside from the crumbling of the road, Mr Norton holds concerns over the lack of white lines and the dramatic bends, with his focus on the number of school buses that are forced to transport children to and from school via that route.

"It's a deadly road and it's not worth the risk," he said.

For one motorist, Amanda Kay, driving over the unavoidable pothole "shredded" her car tyre.

Former Wagga woman Jessica Barron launched a petition in 2022, calling for urgent safety upgrades along the same stretch of Tumbarumba Road where two of her relatives were killed in separate car accidents.

She was just four years old when her uncle Jodie Bramich was tragically killed along the stretch of road in 2005.

In May, 2021, a second uncle, Shaun Bramich, also passed away in another car accident on the road.

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