{"id":818534,"date":"2026-07-23T10:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818534\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T10:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:40:14","slug":"perths-road-to-nowhere-deadlock-resolved-after-four-year-delay-over-aboriginal-heritage-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818534\/","title":{"rendered":"Perth’s road to nowhere deadlock resolved after four-year-delay over Aboriginal heritage concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Western Australia’s longest bridges will be built to fix a road to nowhere in Perth’s east \u2014 resolving a four-year-long deadlock over fears the bridge would destroy an ancient rock shelter and billabong.<\/p>\n

The state government began work on the Great Eastern Highway Bypass Interchanges project in 2021 to create a “free-flowing gateway” into Perth’s Hills.<\/p>\n

Building the Lloyd Street Bridge across the Helena River from Midland to Hazelmere was just one part of the almost $400 million project.<\/p>\n

Four-lane roads on either side of the river were built, but construction came to a halt in 2022 when traditional owners raised concerns about an ancient rock shelter and billabong in its path.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The half-built road is severed by the Helena River, where cultural sites of significance are located. (Supplied: Nearmap)<\/p>\n

“We’re not against development but we are against destruction of our traditional sites and the river is our cultural heritage site,” the group’s spokesman Greg Ugle said at the time.<\/p>\n

“My connection is here, it was a playground for us, for Noongar kids.”<\/p>\n

Since then, the surrounding suburbs have surged with traffic, and the unfinished cul-de-sacs became dumping grounds for rubbish and a racetrack for hoons.<\/p>\n

\"Lloyd<\/p>\n

The Lloyd St extension has become a dumping ground for rubbish and is littered with tyre marks. (Supplied: Nearmap)<\/p>\n

New bridge settled<\/p>\n

The government has announced it has struck an agreement with traditional owners on a new design, with construction pegged to begin by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said it would avoid the culturally significant sites with support piers positioned away from the sensitive areas.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient<\/p>\n

The ancient rock shelter near Helena River. (ABC News: Grace Burmas)<\/p>\n

“The state could have referred [the traditional owner’s application] to the Federal Government for formal determination and continued to build the previous design, against the wishes of the Traditional Owners and other community representatives,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Instead, our government, Main Roads, and the City of Swan listened, worked with the Traditional Owners to get a better understanding of their concerns and set out to work towards a design the whole community could be proud of.”<\/p>\n

Ms Saffioti said the four-lane bridge will be 180 metres long \u2014 one of the longest multi-span bridges in the state.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Lloyd Street roundabout is covered with tyre marks from drivers doing burnouts. (ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch)<\/p>\n

A state government spokesperson has confirmed the Lloyd Street Bridge is part of a package of works including upgrades to the Great Eastern Highway Bypass and Abernethy Road intersection, with a total current budget of $180 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Western Australia’s longest bridges will be built to fix a road to nowhere in Perth’s east…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11758,63813,394244,43,374647,4217,394243,105800,394245,44,86,67387,41,39,42,40,74008,45],"class_list":["post-818534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-construction","tag-great-eastern-highway","tag-hazelmere","tag-headlines","tag-helena-river","tag-infrastructure","tag-lloyd-street-bridge","tag-midland","tag-midland-traffic-problems","tag-news","tag-perth-news","tag-rita-saffioti","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-traditional-owners","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}