New budget to help renew old resources: Budget breakdown for Central Highlands Regional Council

Ratepayers will be feeling a slight pinch over the next financial year thanks to a 3 per cent rate increase. Here’s where the money is going.

It’s officially budget time for the Central Highlands, with the 2022-2023 budget passed by the council on Tuesday, June 28.

The budget is worth a total of $237.6 million that is driven by the aims and main concerns of the Central Highlands Regional Council’s five year corporate plan.

The budget has an operating surplus of $3.2 million and is the third handed down by councillors in the current term.

Ratepayers will be feeling a slight pinch over the next financial year thanks to a three per cent rate increase for the average household, with a maximum average residential rates and charges rise of $4.02.

Central Highlands region mayor Kerry Hayes knew from last year’s budget there would be a rate rise to this year and tried to minimise the cost to ratepayers.

“There wasn’t a lot of options in that respect,” Mr Hayes said.

“We’ve probably known from the 2021-2022 budget that there would be certainly costs flowing through.

“Certainly with supplies, and the change to CPI, and inflation was starting to move.

“We were well aware in our preparation for this budget that there would be certain cost increases that we’ve been seeing flowing through to the business.

“So, like most of Queensland and local government across Queensland, we believe that our general rate increase was probably at the lower level of lots of announcements that have been made in the last month.

“But we’re just really focused on what it costs the Central Highlands. And we were aware of those costs flowing through. So in the end it wasn’t a hard decision.

“It was a fact that to keep doing the business we want to do, you’ve just got to factor those extra costs in, and community ratepayers know that at the moment.

When asked about he was most looking forward to in the $64.5 million capital works program section of the budget, Mr Hayes said the works would be primarily focused on renewing the resources the local government had already, including repairing the roads, not just the urban streets, but the major roads that connected the different areas to each other - an area Mr Hayes said covered 5000km.

Water sources area another area that will benefit from the budget, with $4 million for a Tieri-Capella pipeline.

Mr Hayes said a large sum of money would also go toward restoring Dingo’s water treatment plant.

“Our obligations are quite significant in our communities, particularly in a time when it’s been dry,” he said.

“We’ve had to test our water supply.

“Those water infrastructure assets we’ve got across a huge geographical area, have had quite a few renewals this year.”

Mr Hayes is also happy to see money go towards repairing the Willows Town Hall, a big garden project in Blackwater, and the Blackwater aquatic centre.

The new budget is about overcoming the challenges the economy has faced in the past, while also improving old resources where possible, so as not to add too many new expenses to ratepayers in the Central Highlands area.

Area	Project	Cost
Regional	Council plant replacement program	$4.0m
	Private mobile radio network	$2.5m
	Wearing surface renewal program	$2.4m
	Upgrade community housing	$960,000
	Managed CCTV services	$603,720
	Valve and hydrant replacements	$502,400
	Flood warning network improvement	$250,000
	Regional grandstand renewal	$181,500

Area	Project	Cost
Central	Mayfair Estate rehabilitation program (year one)	$1.1m
	Park Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrades (year one)	$1.7m
	Construction of spelling yards at Emerald Saleyards	$796,316
	Footpath works on Hospital, Andrews, and Pilot Farm roads	$390,000
	Roy Day park multipurpose building stage two	$385,000
	Comet pier and pump replacement	$200,000
East	Dingo and Duaringa	$4.6m
	Mourindilla and Range Baranga roads resheeting	$5550,000
	Blackwater rehabilitation program (year one)	$1.7m
	Ghungalu Nunee (gardens) stage one	$783,000
	Bauhinia bin station relocation	$527,175

East	Blackwater community centre renewal	$407,000
North	Tieri-Capella pipeline section replacement	$4.0m
	Anncrouye Road rehabilitation	$850,000
	Capella Dam repairs	$579,600
	Capella Aquatic Centre stage one	$550,000
	Capella Water Treatment Plant filter replacement	$150,000
	Capella Showgrounds arena fence restoration	$102,300
South	Mulcahys Road pave and seal	$3.8m
	Sunlight, Echo Hills, Wealwandangie, Buckland, Coomoo Baralaba and Springton roads resheeting	$3.5m
	Springsure Aquatic Centre upgrades (year 1)	$2.0m
	Carnarvon Gorge Road rehabilitation	$1.2m
	Eclipse Street beautification	$605,000
	Springsure and Rolleston off – leash dog parks	$290,400
	Rolleston Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade	$120,000