No future plans for Gympie council’s stalled $4.3m transit hub

An ambitious proposal to build a $4.3million transit hub near Memorial Park has been stuck at the depot for four years, and there appears to be no immediate plan to resurrect it.

A once-touted plan for a new transit hub at Jaycee Way near the CBD and Memorial Park remains stuck at the depot more than four years on.

Residents waiting for a once touted multimillion-dollar transit centre to arrive in the Gympie CBD may have to find another option, with the once-touted project still stuck at the depot, and no sign of it leaving the station any time soon.

Gympie Regional Council sustainability director Adrian Burns confirmed on Friday the project was on hold, with no immediate plans to get it running again.

The proposal, which included artwork, “pop-jet” fountains, taxi drop-offs, new parking and a bus station, was to be built on a triangular block wedged between River Rd, Jaycee Way and Monkland St near Memorial Park.

The project has been stuck at the depot for more than four years with the latest update on it at a public meeting in 2019.

The council had bought most of the land needed in the past decade with only the Cooloola Paint and Panel site remaining in private hands.

The plan was proposed to be built on three blocks near Memorial Park. One of those blocks remains privately owned by Cooloola Paint and Panel, while the council spent more than $2 million acquiring the other two.

Cooloola Paint and Panel has itself now undergone a major rebuild after being inundated above the roofline in the February 2022 floods.

CoreLogic RP Data records show the council spent more than $2 million acquiring the land.

It paid $660,000 for the block at the corner of Jaycee Way and Monkland St in 2014, and $1.35 million for the former Telstra and Madills car dealership site in 2016.

The cost of building the centre was quoted at $1.6 million in 2020, and a bid for the federal government to fund half the bill fell through in 2019.

The council did not respond to questions asking how much it had spent creating the masterplan.

An effort to have the federal government foot half the $1.6 million construction bill was rejected in 2019, and there has been no developments on the project since.

In total, the project’s final bill was expected to be at least $4.3 million.

Mr Burns said there was no money in the council’s 2023-24 budget for the transit hub.

The future of the land at Jaycee Way will be one of the things considered as part of the creation of the council’s new town plan in 2024.

“The development of the new planning scheme includes information about draft open space and recreation and town centre policies and council is seeking input from the community into these matters,” Mr Burns said.

Mayor Glen Hartwig said the council did have funding for the “reinvigoration and redesign” of the CBD, and these plans “will include streets outside of Mary Street, and will also give consideration to the future use of the entire CBD including parklands”.