A major upgrade to a stretch of unsealed road linking two regional towns in far west New South Wales has been completed.
The 330-kilometre Silver City Highway has been entirely sealed, providing a safer route for freight, tourists and locals travelling north from Broken Hill to Tibooburra.
Freight operator Glen Degoumois said the improvement would slice his travel time by about two hours.
"Before, it was rough as guts," he said.
"It would've taken nearly six hours in a road train to get to Tibooburra.
"Now you're looking at four hours."
A safer route
The owner of the Packsaddle Roadhouse, which sits at the halfway point between the two towns, says she has already noticed more visitors in the area.
"We still can't believe it's actually finished, it's a really exciting time for the bush," Mia Degoumois said.
"It has opened up a whole new tourist destination for people and a much-needed boost for all the small businesses and tourism operators out here."
With the prospect of international travel looking unlikely for the rest of the year, locals are hoping more people will choose to holiday on home soil and venture further out into corner country.
"It's an opportunity people have now and especially with not being able to travel overseas," Ms Degoumois said.
"People have even mentioned that is the reason they're out here."
The unsealed road was notoriously rough and corrugated, and rainfall would cause so much deterioration that the highway would close for days at a time.
Retired grazier Jim O'Connor, 88, said he didn't think he'd see the road sealed in his lifetime.
"People would say there's not enough people living out here for it to be sealed — there's not enough stock so you'll never see a bitumen road up here," he said.
"I nearly didn't live to see it but anyway I got here."
'Easy, pleasant drive'
Tourist Warwick Wood, who had previously travelled along a section of the unsealed road with a caravan, said the drive had vastly improved.
"I was dawdling in places — it was 20 kilometres an hour, bull dusts and corrugations," he said.
"Now it's so good to be able to whip up here and have a look at the outback."
Vehicles facing the brunt of the rough surface would incur heavy costs to repair the damage.
"Those people that have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if you get the off-road [vehicles] they still seem to get damaged," Mr Wood said.
Tourist McComas Taylor said the road would entice visitors to the area.
"It takes all the stress out of the trip and makes it an easy and pleasant drive," Mr Taylor said.
"The quality of the road is pretty important — we've got a good four-wheel drive, but the sealed road means you can focus on enjoying the landscape rather than worrying about the surface."
Big benefits
The road will also allow easier access to a new national park that will be created after the New South Wales Government's largest single purchase of conservation land in history.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service announced the park would not be open until late next year.
Melissa Thomson, from the Family Hotel in Tibooburra, said the sealed road will open the town to a wider range of travellers.
"People will be able to come up with two-wheel drives, so it will make it a lot easier for the elderly people," she said.
"A lot of them are too frightened to come up here because of the roads, but now that it's all sealed I think we'll see a lot more senior visitors."
Regional Transport Minister Paul Toole said the $145 million project would offer a lifeline to local businesses.
"We've seen something like 260,000 tonnes of dirt that has had to be moved for this job," he said.
"There's about 10,000 hours of work power that has gone into it and it's provided around 150 jobs."
The 50km stretch of road between Tibooburra and the Queensland border remains unsealed, but the Government is aiming to change that by 2022.
"This is a legacy project that is now connecting these communities," Mr Toole said.
