Johns River

Highway signage for the bypassed villages of Kew, Johns River and Moorland were always a big issue at community forums and in local surveys alike.

In May of 2010, JRCPA President David Shepard met with the then-Roads Minister Nathan Borger during the opening of the Johns River Bypass, to underscore the importance of identifying our bypassed villages to passing motorists.  Location Marker for Moorland - Second Draft sketch The ideas were well-received by the Minister and a pilot program was set in place at the RTA.

Early drafts were done for the unique “Location Markers”, which will include the town name as well as a large horizontal panel to show off photos of the best of the community and region.

The Johns River Journal and other area newspapers advertised for submissions from the community, for photographs and ideas for each of the photo panels.    Being a project of interest to the Three Brothers Network,  3BN Chair Lorri Fischer organised many submissions to the judging panel, to ensure they understood what our beautiful region was all about.

After carefully sifting through the many photos and descriptions, the panel settled on some basic “must-have” themes for each of the Three Brothers villages of Kew, Johns River and Moorland.

The panel used the community submissions to direct a professional photographer to go get the final high quality shots – which are soon to appear along our Three Brothers segment of the Pacific Highway.

Location Marker Draft 1-KEW

Unlike the Council town entrance signs recently erected in Coopernook, Moorland and Johns River, the new Location Marker signs are directly on the RTA road corridor.

The new signs were unveiled at a recent meeting with Roads Minister Duncan Gay in Johns River.  True to her promises to our Three Brothers communities, our local Member for Port Macquarie, Leslie Williams brought the Minister by to understand better the issues of bypassed communities.,

Also in attendance were the Three Brothers Network Chair, Lorri Fischer, and community representatives.   For more information, please see the 3BN website here.