Rally from Parkhurst to Canberra over Rockhampton Ring Road delay

Hundreds of fed-up residents have gathered to voice their frustration over the $1bn Rockhampton Ring Road delay. Here’s how they are taking action.

Compared to other cities Rockhampton may be small, but hundreds have gathered in one of the northern suburbs to make sure their voices are heard in Canberra.

Rockhampton workers, business owners and residents gathered in Parkhurst on Friday to rally for the Rockhampton Ring Road to start now.

It comes after it was announced the price tag for the project had blown out by $700 million and, as a result, the project start date would be delayed.

The delay has put hundreds of workers and some local companies in limbo, with some already investing thousands, if not, millions on machinery, vehicles and equipment ready for work to begin.

Starting in Rockhampton, the rally will make its way down to Canberra with advocates including Jack Tranaman, Jason Thomasson and Kelvin Appleton hoping to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to present him a petition and talk about getting work started.

Mr Thomasson, who owns JRT, said people had moved to Rockhampton in anticipation of working on the project.

“They’re working at Shoalwater Bay, they’re working at Rookwood Weir and those jobs are slowing down,” he said.

“In 12 months time there won’t be much work there, these people have invested their time and efforts to come and work here and be part of it, and our Federal Government at this moment has taken that away from those people.

“Local businesses here have spent a lot of money and made a lot of effort doing what they were told to do, which was to get organised for this job that was going to start in January 2023.”

Hundreds gathered to rally the delay of the Rockhampton Ring Road project.

Jack Trenaman from SMW Group said all they were asking was for fairness and for committed promises to be fulfilled.

“Rockhampton Ring Road is extremely important for the skill sets we’ve been working on as a community,” he said.

“Rookwood Weir, Shoalwater Bay, all of that leads into the ring road and we have got construction workers that have moved here and apprentices and trainees, who we have skilled up to start in 2023 on the ring road.”

Hundreds gathered to rally the delay of the Rockhampton Ring Road project.

Mr Trenaman said roughly 125 school leavers this year would not get a job as a trainee or apprentice because of the Ring Road’s delay.

“We’ve heard from the government it (the ring road) has been deferred, you cannot tell a school leaver that there is no start date to their job,” he said.

“2023 was the start date, we’re geared up, we’re ready.”

Rockhampton is one of the only regional centres between Brisbane and Townsville without a bypass for heavy vehicles, meaning large trucks must pass through the city.

Rockhampton businessmen are up in arms over the project’s delay.

This means road trains carrying large pieces of equipment, such as 60m blades for the Clarke Creek Wind Farm, must pass through the Rockhampton CBD to get to their destination.

Kelvin Appleton, who heads up the Don’t Go Cold on Coal Group, said the ring road would take thousands of vehicles out of the Rockhampton CBD, including wide loads.

“We’re not building a stadium, we’re building a road to make this a safer city,” he said.

“We’re taking 13,000 light vehicle movements and 2,500 to 3,000 heavy vehicle movements out of the centre of Rockhampton.”

Also speaking at the rally was Undamine Industries CEO Karla McPhail.

She said Central Queensland was a “power house” in Australia’s economy and said all people were asking for was a “basic road”.

“We are asking for infrastructure to do our jobs and this is out of control,” she said.

“This is the future of our region and I think it’s hideous that we have to beg our government to give us a road that they had already budgeted for, that they had already promised and had started tendering.

“We’ve had to come out of our workplaces, out of our offices, to beg for basic infrastructure for our region to grow.

“We can’t get over the bridge in the morning, we can’t get an ambulance through Rocky, we can’t get semis through the middle of town because we don’t have basic infrastructure to do what we need to do.”

The rally will travel from Rockhampton to Canberra.

Acting Mayor of Rockhampton Regional Council Neil Fisher said council held a special meeting on Friday where it was agreed they would meet and negotiate with politicians from all sides of government about the issue.

“This project needs to happen, we want a ring road and we want it now,” he said.

Capricornia MP Michelle Landry said the ring road delay was “very disappointing”.

“This is something we had worked on for years, money was put on the table in 2019 and both sides of politics agreed to that and made commitments for it,” she said.

“There’s projects all over this nation where the cost has blown out, there was a billion dollars on the table – let’s get it started and add onto it as we go.

“This is extremely important to Rockhampton and Central Queensland, over 800 direct local jobs were going to be on the table and so many contractors have geared up.

“But it’s not just our contractors, it’s the hospitality sector and accommodation, the cafes, the bakers, butchers, clothes shops – all these people coming to this city to work on this project.”

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan.

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan will be joining the convoy to Canberra to make the voices of Rockhampton people heard.

He said the turn out at the rally showed Rockhampton was ready for the ring road, and it was ready now.

“We’ve got hundreds of people who want a job and who want to start this project,” he said.

“The hundreds of people here today are going to make sure their voices are heard.

“If you drive from Cairns and go all the way to Brisbane – Townsville has a ring road, Mackay has a ring road, Gympie is about to get a ring road.

“You can go all the way through to Brisbane basically, except through Rockhampton. We are not going to be left behind.”

The ring road rally will reach Canberra on Monday with a rally to be held outside parliament that morning.