NAGAMBIE farmer Greg Bazeley used to have a journey of less than 3km between his two properties on either side of the Goulburn River.
That was until the Strathbogie Shire closed the historic Kirwans Bridge last week, forcing Mr Bazeley to make a detour of at least 26km.
Strathbogie Shire council decided to close the bridge after engineers found it in serious need of repairs.
Mayor Howard Myers said the council "agonised over the decision", but was left with no choice because it lacked the funds to repair the bridge.
Cr Myers said the shire would replace Kirwans Bridge with a new, modern structure "when we receive a specific grant" from the State or Federal governments.
The comments came as the Federal Coalition committed to provide $300 million - to be matched dollar for dollar by local or State Governments - to fix bridges around the country.
However the funds, to come from the existing Nation Building Project, are already allocated so money will need to be diverted from other projects.
Infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese said the bridge program was "another unfunded con job from a political party that had 12 years to do something about this very issue and didn't".
Mr Bazeley said there was no doubt small rural shires were not being adequately funded."But I believe the council is using us to push the point and we are paying for it very dearly," he said.
Mr Bazeley said the bridge's closure also created a serious fire risk because it was the only escape route for local residents on the west side of the Goulburn River.
