Council chief executive officer Colin Davies said it seemed the small country towns were being left off the election radar as the state’s mining future had driven candidates in the seat of Giles to focus their efforts, and commitments, to towns like Whyalla and Roxby Downs.

He made the comment during a bid to lobby campaigning parties to commit to improving the state of water and roads in the region.

He said he wanted to see solid commitments from the government to help improve salinity problems for Hawker and Quorn’s main water supplies, and for the government to back its promotion of the region as a tourism destination with funding for infrastructure and road maintenance.

“The federal and state governments have both endorsed the Flinders Ranges as a tourist destination … but we need financial backing to support the infrastructure required for this tourism push,” he said.

He said without government assistance the council may need to consider road closures in the future.

“The fact is we only have 1500 ratepayers, so we can’t find the funding to upkeep the roads on our own as a small council.”

He said few ratepayers also meant the region was left off of the political agenda.

He said changes to the southern and northern boundaries of the Giles electorate during the 2003 and 2007 redistributions have meant Quorn and Hawker had changed electorate seats.

He said this had led to a string of election candidates that were detached from the needs of the townships.

“One of our problems is that we have changed electorates since the last election … and it doesn’t help our case.”

Previously within the seat of Stuart he said candidates in the seat of Giles seemed to be concentrating all their efforts in mining related districts such as Whyalla and Roxby Downs.

“We feel like we’re left out of the limb all of the time,” he said.

He said he hadn’t seen any of the candidates visit the towns over the election campaigns.