Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley advised to remove joyriding deterrent rocks while Port Hedland’s stay put

A Kimberley shire is wondering why it has to remove hoon-busting boulders around town while a Pilbara shire has been told by the same insurer that its big roadside rocks can stay. The Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley recently received legal advice to remove large boulders that had helped deter joy riders in stolen vehicles because its insurer, LGIS, would not cover the council if there was a crash. However, the Town of Port Hedland has been told its boulders — which are similarly used by police in stolen car operations — don’t pose any concerns for LGIS. Wyndham-East Kimberley president David Menzel said it was “absolutely frustrating”. “The issue is not resolved; there is investigation work going on as to how to solve this problem,” he said. A Town of Port Hedland spokesperson said their boulders weren’t as close to the road as those in Kununurra. “The specifics of the placement of police protection boulders in the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley were unique in that they were placed on both sides of the road,” they said. “This is not the case for the police protection boulders in the Town of Port Hedland, which are also placed at a greater distance from the roadside. The town will continue to assess risk and manage accordingly, as it does with all its assets.” A dozen strategically placed boulders had been put on road reserves at two main intersections in Kununurra to act as police protection barriers. The rocks provided a place for police to hide behind after deploying road spikes to stop oncoming stolen vehicles. Before the rocks were put in place, the stolen vehicles would drive directly at the officers. The strategy has worked in reducing car thefts and hooning through town over the past year. But the boulders were removed recently after the LGIS told the shire it would not be insured if there was a crash and councillors could find themselves personally exposed to litigation. Mr Menzel said the shire would continue to try to find a resolution to the problem “It is not resolved; we won’t stop trying to protect our community,” he said. “I have facetiously said maybe if we put a couple of bus shelters in there — good, solid concrete bus shelters — that will be OK, because somehow in Perth we have all this infrastructure which is within half a metre of the road, whereas up here it has to be two or three metres away. “We don’t think there is any disagreement on our intent in putting the boulders there, we just fall into slightly dangerous territory in the way the legislation is written. “It is super frustrating and costs money to resolve it but we can’t in good faith expose the shire to a legal action.”