• Now Available for download The history of proceedings on the Northern Access Road from 1981 to recent times PDF (you'll need Adobe Reader to open the Document
• A significant majority of affected residents believe the road should be opened (at least for the bus only compromise option, if not for full vehicular access).
• The Masson, Wilson, Twiney study of 1999, commissioned by the RTA and Sutherland Shire Council, showed from its survey results that:
- Around 85% of respondents favoured opening the northern link, while only 15% opposed it.
- Around 90% of respondents from Engadine, Woronora Heights and Heathcote were in favour of opening the northern link.
• The plebiscite in Woronora Heights in 1996 showed 68% of residents favoured opening the link.
• At the last council election the Labor and Liberal candidates for Ward D, who were both in favour of improved access through this northern route, polled 66.8% of the primary vote between their candidate groups. Shire Watch, opposed to opening the road, even for buses only, polled only 19.4% of the primary vote.
• At the Woronora Heights polling booth at the same Council election, candidates favouring improved northern access polled over 70% of the primary vote.
• Petitioning in Engadine in 2002 indicated a significant majority of those canvassed were in favour of opening the road.
• Maintaining two locked gates on an emergency access road is an abject failure in accepted safety practices. There are some 600m between the two locked gates. The Thurlgona Rd bush fire disaster in 2002 demonstrated the failure of these gates. They remained locked for approximately an hour and a half after the fire started.
• No other satisfactory option has been proposed to ease peak hour traffic congestion in Engadine. "No amount of tinkering with roads to the south will accrue anywhere near the same benefit as the northern access" (Masson, Wilson, Twiney Traffic Study 1999).
• From the locked fire trail to the Woronora high level bridge is approximately 2km. This is, by far, the closest main road to Woronora Heights.
• "The bus access option will create no significant environmental impacts, particularly in relation to noise and air quality" (EIS 2000 Vol 2 p196).