State Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland at Cuttagee Bridge on 31 March. Photos: Supplied.
State Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland drew quite a crowd when he visited Cuttagee Bridge to make a low-key statement.
When Dr Holland arrived at Cuttagee Bridge 20 minutes later than expected, he found a crowd of 20 to 30 people waiting. They were curious to know what announcement he would be making.
There has been little visible progress on the bridge since Bega Valley Shire Council voted in November 2025 to replace the single-lane bridge with a two-lane concrete-and-steel structure that could bear in excess of 100 tonnes.
Staff from NSW Environment visited the site earlier this year, as did Transport for NSW, to assess the condition of the bridge, which has not been properly maintained and badly needs work.
The people also wanted to express their feelings about developments since NSW Labor’s March 2023 election commitment of $15 million towards the repair and restoration of the 133-year-old bridge in line with its heritage values.
People waiting for Bega MP Dr Michael Holland to arrive at Cuttagee.
Among the crowd were members of the Restore Cuttagee Bridge Group, Barragga Bay resident Phil Coates and conservationist, lobbyist and international campaign adviser Alec Marr.
“Dr Holland said a few things and people dressed him down,” Mr Coates said. “He is saying to council: enough is enough. You have to come forward and do this.”
Dr Holland told the gathering that the council has until the end of April to get its act together.
In Mr Marr’s opinion, Dr Holland started on the wrong foot. Dr Holland said he wanted to ask the council to get on with the bridge project.
“I said that is the last thing we want. We don’t want them building a two-lane concrete bridge,” Mr Marr said. “They need to go back to the beginning. Eventually, Dr Holland got that. He got the point that to tell council to do what it has been doing faster isn’t a good idea.”
Mr Coates said the longer the meeting went on, the more confident people became about asking questions. The meeting lasted around 40 minutes.
MP for Bega Dr Michael Holland at Cuttagee on 31 March.
Dr Holland told them that he would like another meeting about the repair and restoration solution that the Restore Cuttagee Bridge Group has proposed with the help of heritage engineers.
“He said it has to be a compromise. We understand that,” Mr Coates said. “He said it has to be substantially concrete, which our solution is.”
Mr Marr said Dr Holland agreed to arrange a meeting between the group’s heritage engineers and TfNSW.
“Dr Holland said he could get it done fairly quickly,” Mr Marr said. “I would think within a week or a fortnight.”
He said Dr Holland received a consistent message about how unhappy people were with the council and an unambiguous message that a two-lane bridge was unacceptable.
“Dr Holland understands to do anything other than the election promise is fraught politically,” Mr Coates said.
Mr Marr said: “Material we have received through the Government Information Public Access Act shows that council has acted in bad faith every step of the way. Dr Holland more or less agreed that the $3 million the NSW Government has given council so far has been wasted.”
Mr Marr said the two-lane concrete bridge that the council planned was inappropriate and there was no money to finish it.
“Meanwhile, there is $12 million that can be used to restore the bridge, which was what the money was originally pledged for,” Mr Marr said. “Dr Holland got a fairly clear set of messages from people and he was amicable in the end.”
