The Council was advised by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage to suspended grading work on Kameruka Lane in December last year following the discovery of items believed to be Aboriginal artefacts during preliminary assessments.

BVSC was advised to suspend work on the road on 8 December 2021, after an Aboriginal Due Diligence Assessment revealed there may be aboriginal artefacts along approximately 47% of the road corridor.

In March 2021 Bega Valley Shire Council was granted $1.9m from the Fixing Local Roads program to seal the well used link road near Candelo.

The process has begun to gain an Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit (AHIP), where the significance of the sites will be determined by an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment (ACHA), a necessary part of the permit process.

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Bega Valley Shire Council were informed the AHIP process might take up to 40 weeks to complete and includes extensive consultation with the Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Grading and general maintenance work has been suspended until the AHIP process is complete, which may not occur until late September.

Kameruka Lane resident John Logus reached out to Australian Community Media to express his concerns about the suspension of maintenance and grading work on the road, that in his opinion had made it unsafe for residents.

"I respect that the artefacts are there and they need to be preserved, I think that's a critical thing to say, but the forty weeks seems quite a long period of time," he said.

"This is a main road; if you type in directions from Bemboka to Merimbula, it will take you down this road, let alone all the trucks that use it, I'm happy for people to use it but it's got to be safe.

"The issue is it has pot holes, corrugation, loose sand, and the road is very narrow in some places," he said.

Mr Logus also expressed concerns that Council had not adequately kept residents up to date on the works.

"It's more of frustration that we're not being kept up to date on the status of the project in any shape or form.

"We want some sort of confidence that the project is still going ahead - subject to the necessary approvals."

Council responded to these concerns and said it had written to affected residents and explained the situation, however Mr Logus said he had not received any correspondence since works were suspended in December last year.

"I think any rate payer would have a reasonable expectation to be updated on a project that council have undertaken, particularly when there has been extensive delays and unexpected events.

"A draft timeline for the next maintenance schedule and sealing of the road would be appreciated by all residents on this road," he said.

Bega Valley Shire Council said the tender for the sealing of the road had not yet been released.

They also said council regularly reports to the Fixing Local Roads program and has submitted a variation to extend the deadline.