Concerns Grow About Lithgow Spending Too Much Time Alone Amid Blue Mountains Road Closures

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In a pretty clear example of why rural people don't vote for Labor, one of the Blue Mountains most crucial arterial roads has been closed off at Victoria Pass indefinitely, causing tens of thousands of motorists to take an alternative, four-hour longer, route.

The Great Western Highway, which is meant to be the more impressive road connecting Sydney's Western Suburbs to the state's regional towns on the other side of the Great Dividing Range, has been shut down since Monday night after motorists noticed a pretty concerning crack on The Convict Bridge, which was built in the 1800s by - you guessed it.

A timeline for reopening this bridge remains unclear while geotechnical engineers work to determine the cause of the damage, and whether or not the NSW Government is accountable for things getting this bad after ignoring multiple letters from local townspeople and even the local mayor.

Since closure, traffic has been re-routed through the touristy country road known as the Bell's Line, which is now a car park of back-to-back semi-trailers carrying freight both ways.

Other options are to circumvent the entire Blue Mountains range by driving via Newcastle or Goulburn, a journey that would cross multiple international borders if this was Europe.

But unfortunately, as the voters west of Victoria's Pass now realise, we are not in Europe - and rural infrastructure isn't as important as the placing the finishing touches on the rushed environmental nightmare that is Western Sydney Airport, which sits dangerously in the shadows of this very mountain.

Furthermore, concerns are growing about the colourful town of Lithgow, the first town on the Western side of the range.

Known for their TicTac factory, multiple high-security prisons, and for being the home of Laurie Oakes, Lithgow is a mix of Blue Mountains hippyness and Western NSW redneckness.

This awkward marriage of extremely different political ideologies, blue collar industry, and every other social quirk that regional Australia has to offer - makes for quite a unique monoculture that could only exist in Lithgow.

And social scientists are deeply worried that any further isolation from outside influences could turn Lithgow into a Super-Lithgow, which could escalate into residents withdrawing from Australian society even further, in turn creating a seperatist culture that worships only semi-precious stones and regional rugby league.

The NSW Premier is facing immense pressure to re-connect Lithgow to NSW as soon as possible.

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