The New South Wales Government is providing $11.5 million for planning of an upgrade of the Newell Highway at Coonabarabran. This work is part of the $500 million Newell Highway upgrade program. 

Project objective
Upgrade the Newell Highway to support more efficient movement of freight by improving heavy vehicle access for PBS3 (a) high productivity vehicles (36.5 metre B-Triples and Type 2 Road Trains)

Project features
Construction of a Bypass
New bridge over the Castlereagh River
Newell Highway and Oxley High intersection upgrade to give priority to the Newell.

As a resident who lives in Coonabarabran, l am strongly against this! It’s hard as it is here with the everlasting drought and now the NSW government is goingto build a bypass route?! This will take away I’m assuming at least 70% of tourists that pass through our small town. It’s already a ghost town here with many shops shut down and many local businesses struggling to keep their doors open. We need tourists to stop here, enjoy our beautiful country town, and spend money at local shops. Putting this bypass in will kill our town. I’m sure of it. How about giving this $11.5M to the farmers. You know how heart wrenching it is to help put down suffering livestock because they have no food or water on the land? Or how hard it is to try to convince a farmer not to take his own life because he’s overworked, in debt and over stressed all because he’s trying to keep his livestock alive and keep his family fed. That’s the real struggle and you have no idea how much this stupid bypass will kill this lovely town. Put this bypass in and you’ll be signing Coonabarabran’s death certificate.
#StopCoonaBypass