Monster potholes cause havoc on Bruce Highway, south of Rockhampton

Monster potholes are causing havoc on the Bruce Highway after this week’s rain deluges in Central Queensland, with a young Rockhampton family telling how they narrowly avoided disaster.

Massive downpours that have smashed rain records in Central Queensland this week have caused monster potholes to open up on the Bruce Highway, with a young family narrowly avoiding disaster on Wednesday afternoon.

Katrina Worboys was driving her Mazda home to Rockhampton from Maryborough, with her partner Branden Hellyer and their son Alijah, when they hit trouble just before Bajool.

“I was driving behind a truck and I couldn’t see the big potholes up ahead and I couldn’t avoid them - I think I just hit the one of them,” Katrina said.

The potholes on the Bruce Highway near Bajool in Central Queensland on August 14. Photos Darryn Nufer.

“By the time I could see it (big pothole), if I’d swerved I probably would have hit the other one too.”

The result was a blown front left tyre but it could have been much worse.

“I’m glad it wasn’t night time - it would have been very scary,” Katrina said.

“It was definitely scary enough as it was - I’m still shaking,” the young mum added as her partner changed the tyre on the side of the highway.

The potholes on the Bruce Highway near Bajool in Central Queensland on August 14. Photo Darryn Nufer.

Katrina said the trip to that point had been okay, although they had seen lots of road damage.

“Just before Childers they had one side (of the highway) blocked off and you had to wait at the lights.

“It’s been okay, there have been a few potholes, nothing too bad except for here.

“I had a feeling it (Bruce Hwy) would be bad closer to Rocky (after the rain) because the road itself is already bad.”

Katrina Worboys with her partner Branden Hellyer and their son Alijah, after blowing a tyre in a massive pothole on the Bruce Highway near Bajool. Photo Darryn Nufer.

The northbound section of road where Katrina came to grief, between Eight Mile Creek and Bajool, has numerous monster potholes one after the other.

A pothole on the Bruce Highway near Bajool on August 14. Photos Darryn Nufer.

This section does have a “rough surface, reduce speed” sign just prior to the potholes on approach, but as this publication can attest having also driven the highway on Wednesday, nothing can prepare you for the sheer size and depth of these holes currently in the highway.

It is not only the highway north towards Rockhampton that has been badly damaged by rain.

At numerous spots travelling south towards Gladstone, deep potholes have opened up and are causing havoc with motorists - and many come with no warnings until it’s too late and drivers have hit them.

It comes after analysis shows motorists using Queensland’s major highway are five times more likely to be injured or killed in a crash than those driving on the major carriageway that links Sydney and Melbourne, reported as part of News Corp’s Help Our Highway campaign.

It was just last weekend that Independent candidate for Rockhampton Margaret Strelow did her own Bruce Highway road trip south and shared photos on social media of damaged sections.

Ms Strelow included the hashtag “Fixthebruce” with her post - and that was before hundreds of millimetres of rain fell in parts of Central Queensland on Tuesday.