Australia's biggest pothole gets the royal treatment after 16 long months

Significant cracks began to appear on Four Mile Creek Road in October, 2022 and it didn't take long for those cracks to turn into a full-blown land slide a few weeks later.

Now, 16 months on, the roadway has been repaired.

Cabonne Shire Council released a statement on social media last week indicating the road had been reopened, albeit with a reduced speed limit of 60km/h for the next four weeks.

"A temporary side access road was installed to keep the road operable whilst funding was secured to complete the required rehabilitation to the main road," the statement said.

Keeden Contracting Pty Ltd successfully secured the tender, and the work to repair and stabilise the road, and decommission the temporary side access road has been completed.

Cabonne says funding for the repair was secured from the Disaster Recovery - Essential Public Asset Restoration Work Fund and Transport for NSW.

Cabonne was also allocated $797,455 under the then NSW Coalition Government's $50 million Fixing Local Roads Pothole Repair round of funding released in late 2022.

The condition of the road began to deteriorate on the back of record-breaking rain across the Orange region throughout 2022.

In 2022, Orange's main weather station at the airport recorded 1340mm of rain to rank as the city's sixth wettest 12 month period in over 130 years of records.

While the year before, 2021, was Orange's fourth wettest on record with 1455.8mm, contributing to the saturated nature of the land around the Cabonne shire.