Work on vital rural sewerage infrastructure underway

'I think it's important for the growth of (the area). It will bring more money and more people to the area. It will be like a little regional hub'

FIRST STEPS: Work is underway on the Walloon Sewer Pump Station. CCA Winslow senior project engineer Kieran Hoy in the foreground with Bodi Tattersall, Anthony Rosario and James Betts in the background. Picture: Cordell Richardson

WORK has started on $12.4 million worth of sewerage infrastructure which will aid further development in rural Ipswich.

Excavation work for the Walloon Sewer Pump Station is under way on site across the road from the Waterlea Walloon estate, which is being developed by RBG Services.

The estate will be home to 5000 people on 2000 lots after it is completed and the nearby Highland estate is planned for about 1000 residential lots.

The Walloon and Thagoona catchment areas have only been serviced by on-site septic systems and the two areas will be connected to the Rosewood Sewage Treatment Plant with 5km of new pipeline.

Construction of the pump station forms the first phase of the project, which is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

It will serve as a place to store sewage coming from Waterlea - which is currently being trucked out daily - while the pipeline to Rosewood is built.

Between 30-40 people will be working on site at peak construction times.

The infrastructure will ease constraints that previously held local development back, as homes serviced by septic systems are restricted to a minimum block size of one acre.

CCA Winslow senior project engineer Kieran Hoy said the first stage of the project cost $3 million.

"This pump station will service the estate and any future housing around here and pump it to the Rosewood infrastructure up there," he said.

"For any future development in the area it will be able to facilitate that all the way up to the treatment plant at Rosewood. It will provide good capability for any future development in the area.

"I think it's important for the growth of Walloon. It will bring more money and more people to the area. It will be like a little regional hub. It's definitely needed."

RBG Services development manager James Betts believed the completion of the project would make the Walloon and Rosewood corridor the "new Ripley".

"It's a really importance piece of infrastructure," he said.

"This is really going to be the catalyst for the entire catchment.

"Ultimately from Walloon through to Rosewood there's going to be 42,000 living in here. Sewerage has constrained development here. We'll see the catchment here grow and a lot of residents move in.

"All the houses through this existing area and the town centre are on a septic system. So they're either pumping out or they've got infiltration in the ground. Having a good reticulated sewerage is a really good environmental outcome as well."