Fix the Bruce: Why the Bruce Hwy from Gympie to Bundaberg must be four lanes

Queenslanders were shocked by pictures of the crumbling Bruce Highway after towns were cut off by flood. But the same stretch has seen more than 200 fatal and serious injury crashes in just four years. It’s time something is done.

In the four years from 2015 to 2019, the notorious 143km stretch of Bruce Highway between Gympie and Bundaberg claimed 12 lives, two more than the road between Cooroy and Caloundra.

This was despite only carrying a quarter of the traffic.

Last week that same stretch of highway was cut following a torrential downpour which flooded many parts of the Wide Bay.

This severed a key lifeline to the south at a time when it was needed the most.

These are the facts of life when it comes to the Bruce Highway north of Gympie.

It is time this changed.

Figures released by the RACQ show that from 2015 to 2019 there were 209 fatal and serious injuries suffered in crashes on the highway between Gympie and the Bundaberg turn-off.

Grim statistics indeed; but they are not statistics, they are people’s lives.

For every number there are dozens of friends and family members whose lives have been impacted and changed irrevocably.

Flooding which wrecked and cut the Bruce Highway at Glenwood in January 2022, cutting off a key connection in the Wide Bay, is the latest example of why the highway needs to be upgraded to four lanes.

In the coming weeks, The Gympie Times, the Fraser Coast Chronicle and the Bundaberg NewsMail will be telling these people’s stories as we push for the Bruce Highway to become four lanes across the Wide Bay.

These stories are heartbreaking and they need to be heard.

A horrific crash in the town of Gunalda on the Bruce highway just north of Gympie. FILE PHOTO

The impact is not going to get smaller - our region is growing at a phenomenal rate.

Right now these three regions are home to more than 260,000 people.

That number is expected to grow to more than 287,000 by 2031, and almost 300,000 by 2036.

The scene of one of many car crashes on the Bruce Highway

These forecasts were made before Covid drove a even stronger surge of interest in regional areas among people seeking to escape New South Wales, Victoria and southeast Queensland’s cities.

When the last stage of the Gympie Bypass is finished in 2024 it will have taken almost 15 years to upgrade the 62km of road between the two towns.

If work started tomorrow, Wide Bay residents would likely not get to enjoy a smoother, safer trip until 2036.

Every year the Federal and State Governments kick this can up the road and blow the date out further.

It is unacceptable for safer roads to be off the menu for until after our children’s generation.