After years of perseverance and patience by members of the community the Lightning Ridge-to-Cumborah road has finally been completed and will be officially opened in the next couple of weeks.
May Searle has campaigned for eight years and three months to have the road sealed.
"We had a meeting over at the Grawin Club in the Scrub and I asked all the mothers, because they had children going to school, if they could write me letters so I could send them off to politicians, and they did," she said.
Mrs Searle has a suitcase full of correspondence between herself and various government bodies, asking for the road to be completed.
"I'm so thrilled it's finished because I thought that it would never be finished, I honestly thought that," she said.
Mrs Searle said it was just perseverance and her strong will which made her continue on until the road was sealed.
"The former mayor Peter Waterford, he's known me for a long time, but he calls me squeaky wheels now, cause he always said, when May starts something she'll go until she finishes it," she said.
Mrs Searle has been quite ill for the past few months but she maintained she would see the opening of the road.
Mrs Searle said a lot of thanks needed to go to Walgett shire administrator Hugh Percy.
"We had a meeting that was supposed to go for an hour and three and a half hours later Hugh Percy had heard everything that I wanted to say and said 'don't worry May, it will be finished before the end of this year'," she said.
John Healy was a school bus driver for 18 years between the Ridge and the Glengarry/Grawin opal fields.
"It had its moments ... when it rained we had to go around the long way through Walgett. I don't think the kids liked that much," he said.
Mr Healy said there was probably more traffic on the road then than now, although the upgrade would make access to the Ridge easier.
"I think we will have more tourists out here now the road is done, it won't be a problem getting back to the Ridge if it rains," he said.
Cumborah resident Mandy Moorhouse, who uses the Ridge two or three times a week to do her shopping, was a key member of the group, the Ratepayers and Roadusers Association, which lobbied the NSW Government and council to have the road sealed.
When the group failed to get much of a response it decided it needed some statistical evidence the road was being heavily used.
"We thought we would sit on the road at Cumborah - Pat Moorhose, Jenny Head and myself - and count the traffic that used the road.
"We took our findings to council and that's when they started to take notice.".
Mrs Moorhouse said the process of getting the road sealed had been dragging on for six or seven years.
"It is just a relief to have it finally done. My mother and I made the trip to the Ridge on Thursday and by the time we were heading back the road was finished ... no more dusty groceries," she said.
Mrs Moorhouse said there were many people in Cumborah and the opal fields that used the Ridge as a base and it would also positively affect tourism.
"I think the Cumborah Inc Assocation will be having a special ceremony to open the road," she said.
Judy Hugo from the shop at Grawin said the road would make an immense difference in terms of the influx in tourists.
"Already I've seen a rise in people. Last week, we had heaps of people coming out," she said.
According to Walgett Shire Council general manager Stephen McLean there were no plans to name the road: "It looks like we will leave it alone."
Walgett Shire administrator Hugh Percy said a coach would be running from Lightning Ridge out to the official opening and one from Walgett if there was enough interest.
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