Girders are placed by Forests NSW staff rebuilding a bridge on Yadboro Road – an important tourist route into picturesque State forests and national parks. Photo by Howard Spencer.

Forests NSW is doing its bit for  tourism on the south coast of New South Wales, north of Batemans Bay.

A State forest road, Yadboro  Road, is the gateway to the picturesque Pigeon House Mountain in Morton  National Park which provides spectacular views across forested country to the  coast, and to Budawang National Park.

But with the road built in the  1960s, it is due for some timely repairs, particularly to two of the bridges.

“The road was constructed mainly  for logging access, but it now provides tourist access into the adjoining  national parks and to Forests NSW camping area at Yadboro Flat on the Clyde  River,” said Forests NSW South Coast operations and protection forester, Julian  Armstrong.

“We will be sharing the $18000 cost of replacing the  bridges with the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC).

“About half of the road is now  in national park.”

Forests NSW is also partnering  with the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority to improve road  drainage at the nearby Boyne Creek crossing.

“This work, which is also  supported by DECC, is part of a bigger project which aims to improve and  protect coastal water quality by reducing sedimentation into sensitive coastal  waterways such as the Clyde,” Julian said.

“It will be a demonstration  project to reduce the potential for sediment input at this crossing by a series  of sediment controls and road engineering works, including installing lateral  piped drainage at three locations, installing numerous new mitre drains,  improving sediment trapping devices and gravel re-sheeting 100 metres off the  approaches to the bridge.”

This work will significantly  reduce the amount of sediment entering Boyne Creek, which is a tributary of the  Clyde River.

This article appears in the Summer 2007 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.