Things are slowly returning to normal at Cosmo Newberry Primary School.
Chatter spills from classrooms and staff buzz about the grounds.
But small bouquets and single roses are fixed to the front gate, reminding all who pass through them of a devastating tragedy.
It has been seven months since the town’s only schoolteacher was killed in a car crash.
Cosmo Newberry’s community chairperson, who is known as HM, places a hand beside a bottle-green stalk.
“The impact is still being felt now,” he said.
“It was really shocking for this to happen.
“The school had to be shut down.”
Mrs JC, known by her initials for cultural reasons, was driving home on November 18 when she crashed and died on a particularly poor section of the Great Central Road, about four hours north of Kalgoorlie, in remote Western Australia.
The school was closed as children grieved and a new teacher was found.
“The children put flowers on the fence in respect of her passing on,” HM said.
“They’re gradually recovering.
“But it’s going to take a while yet.”
Only a few months before Mrs JC’s death, four other people were killed in car crashes nearby.
On August 19, two people died in a single car crash near Cosmo Newberry, and nine days later, a head-on collision killed two women near the Tjukayirla Roadhouse, 200 kilometres further along the Great Central Road.
The road is part of the Outback Way, which stretches 2,720km from Laverton in Western Australia all the way to Winton in Queensland.
Since 2006, federal governments have spent about $140 million on upgrades.
But last year, the current government confirmed $678m to seal it completely by June 2031.
Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and a local government will tip in a further $260m.
It is set to create huge opportunities for tourism, mining, transport and freight.
Locals hope it will make the mammoth journey much safer.
‘We have to get ready’
Lizzie Marrkilyi Ellis sits beside a glowing escarpment as the sun sets over the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.
The celebrated linguist lives at Warakurna, about 700km north-east of Cosmo Newberry and an hour’s drive short of the Northern Territory border.
Dr Ellis looks forward to seeing the new characters a sealed road may bring.
“At the moment, there’s only people who have four-wheel drives,” she said.
“But later on, there’ll be people coming through with two-wheel drives, pushbikes.
But the elder, who was born on this country before she was sent to the Warburton Mission, worries tourists may not respect the sacred protocols associated with the country.
State government permits allow tourists to access parts of the road that cut through Aboriginal land.
But they need additional permits to enter neighbouring communities and parts of the surrounding country.
“They need to know they’re travelling on … Aboriginal land,” she said.
“So we have to get ready.”
Road upgrade could benefit artists
Rocky Porter bellows a tune and shakes his hips, imitating the king of rock and roll under a baking outback sun.
“We’re caught in a trap, I can’t walk out,” he croons.
“Because I love you too much baby.”
But the Warakurna resident’s love of Elvis Presley extends beyond impersonation – next to him sit two paintings, depicting the singer “moving and shaking” in an eagle-embroidered jumpsuit.
“I’ve seen him on YouTube,” Mr Porter said.
“I get my motivation from him.”
Art provides a vital source of income and a source of self-expression for many people in Warakurna and neighbouring communities.
Patrick Hill, the Laverton Shire President who first initiated the push for a sealed Outback Way more than 25 years ago, hopes the upgrade will help artists as more tourists pass through communities and buy paintings.
He spoke recently at the West Australian Regional Tourism Conference about the need to help prepare communities for extra tourists.
“We’re gradually working up to that climax it will have in five to six years’ time, once it’s sealed,” he said.
75 per cent of local drivers unlicensed
The Warakurna Police Station sits just outside the community, surrounded by ghost gums and camp dogs.
Inside, Brevet Senior Sergeant Colin Johnston is on the phone, hatching a plan.
The policeman suspects once the Outback Way is sealed and supports extra traffic, it will be more heavily patrolled.
He hopes that will improve safety but also fears it will create issues for drivers who live in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands — as he estimates about 75 per cent are unlicensed.
A major barrier, he believes, is a state government rule requiring new drivers to log 50 hours of supervised driving.
But he hopes a new program will help reverse the trend.
The community has received $269,661 through the Department of Transport’s Driving Access and Equity Program, which it used to buy a ute with dual controls to help high school children get their L plates.
“It’ll be a two-way street,” he said.
“They will be able to get a legal licence, and we think it will be a great engagement tool for teenagers to stay at school.”
Senior Sergeant Johnston said the program should also create jobs for driving instructors to help the high schoolers do their hours.
“I’m hoping that will also have a positive social impact, because of that interaction,” he said.
“They’re stuck in a car with a with an elder for the 50 hours. And I’m hoping that will also bridge a bit of cultural issues.”
‘A big job ahead of us’
On a swelteringly hot morning, John Tibble stands in the sun drilling a tray to the side of a ute.
The New Zealander helps run the Community Development Program (CDP) in Warakurna, an employment program that operates across many remote communities.
“It’s a daily occurrence here with vehicles,” he said, sitting by a shady garden afterwards.
“[We are constantly] putting cars back together because the road is shaking them to bits.”
Mr Tibble hopes the new licensing program will create driving instructor jobs for those who participate in the CDP.
But he said drivers may need identification before they can be licensed.
He said the Department of Transport recently came to the region and found only two people out of 90 had proper documents.
“So we’ve got a big job ahead of us making sure everyone has proper ID — [a] Medicare card, birth certificate,” Mr Tibble said.
But he believes overall, the road upgrade will be a good thing, helping people travel to funerals and cultural business more easily and safely, and causing less damage to cars in the process.
More jobs, road trains
Back in Cosmo Newberry, a road train roars past, throwing up dust and making it impossible to see.
There are a number of mines operating on the West Australian side of the Outback Way, and it is believed a sealed road will help more open.
But HM said extra road trains were a worry.
“That creates another difficult situation of our mob of dealing with the trucks on the road,” he said.
Many leaders throughout the region fear the upgrade will see more drugs and alcohol enter the dry communities.
“The older generation don’t want it because it makes access for the younger generation to get alcohol into community a lot easier,” remote sergeant Richard Maza said in Docker River.
Mr Hill suggested a quarantine station, like the one on the SA-WA border at Eucla, could detect biosecurity threats as well as banned substances.
But the leaders also see opportunities.
The WA government is working through Aboriginal heritage clearances and access approvals with traditional owners, as tender documents to upgrade sections near Cosmo Newberry, Warburton and Warakurna are put together.
Once those approvals come through, HM hopes the upgrade will bring jobs — in anything from operating machinery to traffic control.
Others have noted the smoother transport route could bring down the high price of groceries and make it easier to get fresh food.
‘A good thing for a lot of people’
Traffic is accumulating at the Warburton Roadhouse, 1,000km north of Kalgoorlie.
It is difficult to tell how much rain has fallen, but it has not been much.
Yet the westerly section of the Outback Way is closed.
Even a little water will see the road cut up by vehicles, costing thousands to grade, and increase the risk of trucks getting bogged, heightening the risk of crashes and creating liability issues for the shire.
The closure leaves travellers with few options – try the “rough as guts” four-wheel-drive tracks likely to be in far worse a state, spend a week rerouting along the Nullarbor or simply pull over and wait for the road to dry out.
It is among the myriad of inconveniences that has most locals vigorously nodding their heads at mention of the road’s eventual upgrade.
“Sometimes we get a flat tyre and we have to walk,” Wanarn resident Lionel Foster said.
“Twenty kilometres sometimes.”
“The flat tyre in the middle of summer — it’s really hard,” remote nurse Harry Lapojapo agreed.
“[The upgrade] is a good thing for a lot of people,” Docker River resident Lyle Giles said.
“Tourists and all. Aboriginal people and all.”