The Northern Territory is a vast, punishing expanse with a road network spanning roughly 36,000km – just shy of Earth’s 40,000km circumference – and a great deal of those roads are more remote than most Australians ever venture.
As any Territorian will tell you, there is no summer and winter up there, just the wet and dry seasons. The wet season is a punish, repeatedly swallowing roads, bridges, causeways and, when it’s as unrelenting as it was this year, entire towns.
It was one of the worst wet seasons since the region was settled nearly a century ago, Rachel Lowery, Business Manager at her family’s business, F&J Bitumen, tells me, as she ferries us out to Timber Creek from Darwin.
The F&J crew works behind the scenes to repair critical arterials that tether remote communities and stations to the outside world. Images: Thomas Wielecki
“We haven’t had one like that for a very long time, and the water was lapping this bridge during the worst of it,” she emphasises, as we cross the Katherine River Bridge, which stands an imposing 19 metres above the river bed. “We’re still repairing all of the damage…and will be for quite a while.”
It’s a vicious cycle, as ‘the big wet’ reigns down on the Top End each year, inevitable in its arrival yet unpredictable in its severity. It’s all the locals know, and they’re heavily reliant on the Lowerys to keep trucks running and towns open.
Roads are in this family’s blood…it’s their calling. But, they’ve chosen the toughest region in Australia. Probably one of the toughest on Earth. I get the sense, very early on, that it’s more than a business, more than a balance sheet – it’s about giving back to the communities scattered across the lands they roam, and they’d rather be here than anywhere else.
Four our upcoming Winter Issue, ROADBOSS was lucky enough to spend time with the outback roadbuilders following the devastating wet season. Images: Thomas Wielecki
The F&J crew works behind the scenes to repair critical arterials that tether remote communities and stations to the outside world. Seven days a week, without fail, they’re out working a stretch of road so remote you’ve probably never heard of it.
ROADBOSS was lucky enough to spend time with the outback roadbuilders following the devastating wet season, as they repair critical stretches of highway from Darwin, to Katherine, and out to the West Australian border beyond Timber creek, to see firsthand how one family keeps the Territory connected.
Read the full story in the Winter Issue of ROADBOSS Magazine, out July. Click here to subscribe.
