New homes to be resumed and demolished for Bruce Highway upgrade

Families north of Brisbane have been left devastated after being told their newly-built homes will potentially be resumed and demolished to make way for a Bruce Hwy upgrade.

Distressed homeowners of newly-built houses along the Bruce Highway have told of their horror at being told the Department of Transport may resume their properties for future road upgrades.

Owners of two dozen residential lots in a new development in Griffin, north of Brisbane, received emails on Monday telling them their homes may be required for future stages of the highway upgrade, with some having only got the keys to their properties this week.

Young couple Charmaine and James Jackson moved into their “forever” four-bedroom home on Venture St, Griffin, six weeks ago, and on Monday received the devastating letter.

Mrs Jackson said the entire street – occupied by first home buyers and people whose homes were still under construction – had received letters.

James and Charmaine Jackson were notified by email on Monday night their homes could be resumed for extensions to the Bruce Highway. Picture Lachie Millard

“It was one of those emails you read without really processing. I went s---, they’re taking our house,” Mrs Jackson said.

“It’s infuriating. We should never have been sold this land in the first place.

“We worked so hard to save, rented for years to have a forever home for our kids. Now it’s being taken away because no one had the due diligence.”

The letters – seen by The Courier-Mail – state “TMR is undertaking planning for future stages to upgrade the Bruce Highway between Dohles Rocks Road and Anzac Avenue”.

“As part of the planning, TMR has identified a future land requirement from your property”.

New houses still under construction could be demolished to make way for the Bruce Hwy upgrade north of Brisbane. Picture Lachie Millard

It also notes “time frames for design and construction for this stage of the project are not known at this time and will depend on future funding commitments” – potentially leaving homeowners in limbo.

Options being considered included new extended ramps from Dohles Rocks Road, creating eight lanes, and side roads and upgrades at the Anzac Ave interchange.

A Transport and Main Roads spokeswoman said “property resumptions are a sensitive but necessary part of building new infrastructure”.

“We approach each case with the utmost compassion,” she said.

“In an ideal world, road upgrades would be done without any impact on people’s homes, but unfortunately this is not always possible.”

Mr Jackson said the neighbourhood was littered with young families in a catchment of a new state school, and close to amenities.

The couple have been left to question how the homes were allowed to be built.

“There’s all this talk about the need for more homes and now they’re going to demolish a whole street,” he said.

“There’s homes here that aren’t built yet. Where is the sense, where is the care?” Mrs Jackson said.

Karamjat Kaur, with her son Fatehsher Pannu 5, has been unable to sleep since learning her new home might be resumed. Picture Lachie Millard

The Jackson’s neighbour Karamjat Kaur and her family moved in four weeks ago.

Ms Kaur said she had been unable to sleep.

“It’s our first home, we are connected to this, we saw the home go up in each step, it’s terrifying,” Ms Kaur said.

“Where will we go? We have a family and are connected to this house. My daughter goes to Griffin State School.

“It’s perfect. It’s very sad.”

TMR said while there was no plants to start a formal resumption process at present, due to the “constrained nature” of the existing road corridor, “property impacts will be unavoidable to accommodate rapid population growth and associated need for the future upgrades”.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said the project was “in the very early planning stages” and residents who could potentially be impacted had been the first to be notified – “as it should be”.

“We are committed to important upgrades like this which will see Queenslanders get home safer and sooner,” he said.

Community consultation on the upgrades to the Gateway Motorway and Bruce Highway from Bracken Ridge to North Lakes will open on Thursday, and run until December 9.