Friends and former colleagues will raise a glass to Grafton community stalwart Bryan Robins on Saturday as he and wife Kerry bid farewell to the Clarence Valley.
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21st Dec 2020 12:00 AM | Updated: 7:05 AM
Thirty-year-long Pacific Highway upgrade finally complete: Prime Minister Scott Morrison spruiked the long-awaited completion of the Pacific Highway Upgrade as the most “significant infrastructure project” of the last thirty years and expressed his gratitude to those involved in its completion. Twenty-one lives were lost on October 20, 1989 when a semi-trailer collided with a bus on the Pacific Highway at Cowper 25km north of Grafton. More than 31 years, $15 billion and hundreds more lost lives later, this month Australia s largest ever road infrastructure project was officially completed. As part of the Pacific Highway Upgrade, there is now 657km of continuous dual carriageway from Hexham near Newcastle to the Queensland border.
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Subscriber only Bryan Robins could be seen as the unofficial spokesperson for the Cowper Bus Disaster. The most persistent advocate in the aftermath of the bus crash, the retired SES executive has never fully recovered from the images he saw that day. On Thursday, it was a bittersweet moment with the completion of the Pacific Highway upgrade.
Former SES officer Bryan Robins reflects on the new Pacific Highway opening: Former SES officer Bryan Robins reflects on the new highway opening after attending countless horrific head-on collisions on the old Pacific Highway, including the Cowper Bus Disaster of 1989.