As it happened: Brisbane on Wednesday, July 16

The Bruce Highway will expand from six to eight lanes, just south of Caboolture, under a plan from the Department of Transport and Main Roads to deal with traffic congestion.

The department has released a preferred solution for an 18-kilometre stretch of the congested highway between Anzac Avenue at North Lakes and Caboolture-Bribie Island Road at Caboolture.

The Bruce Highway is plagued with congestion.

The preferred solution between Anzac Avenue and Uhlmann Road includes adding extra lanes northbound and southbound in the existing median, increasing capacity from three to four lanes in both directions.

It also includes multi-lane roads on both sides of the highway between Uhlmann Road and Caboolture-Bribie Island Road to separate shorter trips from traffic on the main highway.

The department will discuss the impacts of its plan with nearby landowners and has public consultation open until September.

Thanks for joining us for our live news blog on this sunny Wednesday. We’ll be back with more live coverage tomorrow, so please join us. It might be wise to pack your umbrella as the weather is expected to turn.

And if you’re just catching up on today’s news, here are some of the stories that have been making headlines:

The killer of 57-year-old Sunshine Coast man Zdravko Bilic, who was found stabbed to death outside his luxury property, remains on the run, with shocked neighbours fearing for their safety.

Former Bronco Steve Renouf has been fined $1200 and stripped of his licence for 11 months after pleading guilty to driving almost four times the legal limit, with a court hearing he told roadside police: “You’ve got me, I’m drunk.”

Hundreds of Qantas passengers will be stranded in Singapore for days after their flight to Sydney was repeatedly delayed, complicated by the earlier damage to another Qantas plane.

Specialist IVF nurses at the state’s largest fertility treatment provider, Queensland Fertility Group, walked off the job this afternoon over failed pay negotiations.

The Kangaroo Point Bridge has proved more popular than anyone expected – and now it has taken out the state’s top urban design honour.

One of three men accused of importing nearly 600 kilograms of methamphetamine worth $555 million into the Port of Brisbane allegedly made a trip to Bunnings to buy electronic scales shortly after the shipment arrived.

Bradley John Murdoch, one of Australia’s most notorious killers, has died in custody in the Northern Territory, as his family claims he was “much more than the headlines” despite his murder conviction.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has played down a claim that he stated his opposition to Taiwan’s independence in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

And, the Brisbane Open House program for 2025 is the biggest in five years and the first to include private homes since COVID.

One of three men accused of importing nearly 600 kilograms of methamphetamine worth $555 million into the Port of Brisbane allegedly made a trip to Bunnings to buy electronic scales shortly after the shipment arrived.

Tony Nguyen, 28, Martin Nguyen, 24, and Brendan Ky, 22, had their cases heard before the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The meth was concealed in rolls of fabric, packed inside eight wooden crates.Credit: Australian Federal Police

The court heard one of the men, Martin Nguyen, had allegedly acted as a lookout while his two co-accused waited inside as the massive consignment was dropped off at a Bowen Hills warehouse in Brisbane’s inner-north.

The 24-year-old later allegedly left the warehouse and travelled to Bunnings to purchase electronic scales.

The Australian Federal Police was surveilling the warehouse at the time, the court heard.

Inside the wooden crates.Credit: Australian Federal Police

The methamphetamine was allegedly wrapped inside 200 rolls of fabric, packed in eight large wooden crates when it arrived at the port on a ship from Thailand on July 4.

However, federal police made a switch, removing the drugs from the crates before they were delivered to the warehouse.

The meth seized by federal police.Credit: Australian Federal Police

The trio will remain in custody until their next court appearance on August 1.

The Bruce Highway will expand from six to eight lanes, just south of Caboolture, under a plan from the Department of Transport and Main Roads to deal with traffic congestion.

The department has released a preferred solution for an 18-kilometre stretch of the congested highway between Anzac Avenue at North Lakes and Caboolture-Bribie Island Road at Caboolture.

The Bruce Highway is plagued with congestion.

The preferred solution between Anzac Avenue and Uhlmann Road includes adding extra lanes northbound and southbound in the existing median, increasing capacity from three to four lanes in both directions.

It also includes multi-lane roads on both sides of the highway between Uhlmann Road and Caboolture-Bribie Island Road to separate shorter trips from traffic on the main highway.

The department will discuss the impacts of its plan with nearby landowners and has public consultation open until September.

Hundreds of Qantas passengers will be stranded in Singapore for days after their flight to Sydney was repeatedly delayed with mechanical issues linked to the damage to another plane.

And it was not the only Qantas flight disrupted – the QF2 due to leave Singapore at 7.30pm on Wednesday for Sydney was cancelled, and the QF82 from Singapore to Sydney leaving 8.45pm on Wednesday would be delayed four hours, while the QF81 leaving Sydney at 10.20am on Wednesday had been delayed almost six hours.

Recovery options for Singapore passengers have been complicated by the damage to another A380 at the weekend.

A Qantas Airbus A380 at Sydney Airport.Credit: Wolter Peeters

An aerobridge rammed into a Qantas A380 superjumbo engine at Sydney Airport, delaying a long-haul flight to Johannesburg by 21 hours for hundreds of passengers.

Read the full story.

Education Minister Jason Clare has said work to reform the childcare sector has been slow and “needs to happen quicker”, as another 800 children are tested for sexually transmitted infections after more childcare centres were added to the known workplaces of alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown.

Clare referenced the case of Brown, who was charged by Victoria Police with more than 70 offences earlier this month, when answering a question about where the responsibility falls on childcare reform.

Education Minister Jason Clare.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I don’t think Australian parents are interested in excuses, they want action and action requires all level of government to work together and industry to join in,” Clare said.

“The company that runs the centres should have known where this bloke [Brown] was and when he was working. The Victorian government is working quickly to track all this down, but it highlights to me the importance of a national register … so you can track people down when they cross borders, when they move centres.”

Three NSW men have been charged with the alleged importation of more than $555 million worth of methamphetamine, after a raid on Monday.

Australian Federal Police tracked a parcel of eight wooden crates marked as “UV protective fabrics”, within which about 579 kilograms of methamphetamine were allegedly concealed alongside 200 rolls of material.

The men – aged 22, 24, and 28 – were arrested at a warehouse in Bowen Hills on Monday, where the package had been delivered.

Police said they observed two of the men unravelling rolls of fabric at the warehouse, while the 24-year-old left to buy an electronic scale to weigh the parcels.

In later searches of the building and two vehicles believed to be connected to the alleged trafficking, officers said they uncovered four mobile phones, about $7000 cash, and tools they expected would be used in the sorting and distribution of drugs, as well as the consignment.

All three were taken to Brisbane City Watchhouse.

Former Bronco Steve Renouf has pleaded guilty to driving almost four times the legal limit, with a court hearing he told roadside police: “You’ve got me, I’m drunk.”

Renouf, 55, was pulled over by police in a white Kia on Windsor Road, Red Hill, about 10.45pm on July 1.

Police alleged he failed a random roadside breath test, and that a second test returned a reading of 0.197, almost four times the legal limit.

Steve Renouf in his playing heyday. Credit: Peter Bull

Police prosecutor Kiara D’Odorico told a court today that Renouf was pulled over by police for a licence check and breath test, and admitted to them that he was drunk.

Read the full story.

The wife of slain Sunshine Coast man Zdravko Bilic, who was found stabbed to death in the front yard of their multi-million dollar home, once described him as the “calm to my storm”.

A neighbour found 57-year-old Zdravko Bilic dead with multiple stab wounds outside the couple’s luxury Warana home on Monday night, sparking a homicide investigation.

Police suspect he may have disturbed a break-in.

Zdravko Bilic with wife and HÜD Skin + Body founder Gry Susann TomteCredit: Instagram

His wife, Melbourne skincare company founder Gry Susann Tomte – who was away at the time – asked their neighbour to check on their home after not hearing from Bilic for some time.

Police are now investigating the possibility the attack may have occurred as early as 11pm on Sunday – about 20 hours before Bilic’s body was found.

Tomte founded Melbourne-based skincare clinic HUD Skin and Body, which has clinics in the inner suburbs of St Kilda and Northcote, after moving to Australia from Norway.

In an interview with Australian leisure wear company founder Jasmine Alexa, Tomte described her husband as “the most supportive human I could ever ask for”.

“It’s not easy living with a perfectionist who lives and breathes work,” she said.

“But he is the yin to my yang. The calm to my storm.

“Especially being that we have no family here, the two of us have always been a strong unit.”

Acting Queensland Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy would not be drawn on the progress of the investigation this morning.

“I’m not going to say anything that will compromise the hard work of my frontline investigators,” he told ABC Radio.

“But we have deployed our state homicide squad up there and we’ve deployed all the available resources to investigate that as quickly as possible.”

A man is due to face court today charged with manslaughter over the death of a seven-month-old boy north of Brisbane.

The 42-year-old man, known to the baby boy, was charged with manslaughter yesterday afternoon, three days after the infant was pulled unresponsive from a lake near a rest stop in Gympie, metres from where his family had been camping for the night.

The baby boy was found unresponsive in a lake in Chatsworth Park in Gympie on Saturday morning.Credit: Google Maps

The baby’s family had been camping at the rest stop on their way home to north Queensland. His mother pulled him from the water.

The man was arrested 200 kilometres away in Bundamba, Ipswich, and is due to appear before Ipswich Magistrates Court today.

Turning to national and world news for a moment, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit the Great Wall later today, on the fourth day of his China visit.

It follows his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing’s Great Hall on Tuesday, which Albanese said was guided by Australia’s national interests and is “aimed at co-operating wherever we can, disagreeing where we must”.

Read more here.