OPINION: When will you drive the Bruce, Premier?

It’s hard to see how a Premier who continues to pick planes over cars can ever truly understand - or be forced to fix - the deplorable state of the Bruce Hwy, writes reporter Geordi Offord

As someone who has lived in regional Queensland all their life, I might be a bit biased when I say it truly is the best part of the world to live in.

It offers picturesque landscapes, beautiful beaches and much more. But what I love most about it, is that it is away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities.

When it was announced in 2021 that Brisbane would play host to the 2032 Olympic Games one of the first things I thought was how good it would be for the thousands of visitors to take a road trip up north along the Queensland coast and into the regions.

Whether it's checking out the beautiful beaches of the Sunshine Coast, riding the Mary Valley Rattler in Gympie, whale watching on the Fraser Coast, touring the Rum Distillery in Bundaberg, enjoying a fast-paced cattle sale in Rockhampton, or heading further north to sugar country in Mackay and the world famous beaches of the Whitsundays - regional Queensland has everything going for it.

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.

But if we want to see regional Queensland and its small country towns capitalise on the 2032 Olympics, something needs to be done about the embarrassing state of the Bruce Highway.

Living in a small country town just outside Rockhampton myself, I travel the Bruce Highway daily on my commute to and from work and in its current state and, to put it kindly, it simply is not good enough.

The Rockhampton region recently received record-breaking rain and it was beautiful.

But in the aftermath, potholes have opened up in the same places they were fixed last time and many people have had to stop and change tyres because of damage from the road and some have even had to have their cars towed.

It’s not good enough that drivers like Katrina Worboys travelling on the Bruce Highway sustain damage to their vehicles that they pay for with their hard-earned money because they can’t dodge potholes without driving into oncoming traffic.

It’s not good enough that everytime it rains crater-sized potholes are simply just filled in with a bit of asphalt and compacted, similar to the way sand is packed into a bucket before building a sandcastle.

It’s not good enough that we have to constantly worry about our loved ones driving along the already dangerous road with an additional traffic hazard.

It was extremely disheartening to hear that when Premier Steven Miles visited Central Queensland on Thursday he chose to fly from Gladstone to Rockhampton instead of driving the 105km, or 75 minutes, north along the highway to see the damage himself.

The news was met with criticism from Capricornia MP Michelle Landry who said on social media “the Premier didn’t listen”. “Clearly didn’t want to experience just how bad the Bruce Highway is from their lack of funding,” she said.

Independent candidate for Rockhampton Margaret Strelow also criticised the Premier’s short flight saying she would have organised a “flag waving”.

When questioned about why he chose to fly between Rockhampton and Gladstone at his press conference on Thursday, Mr Miles said he was doing his best to be in as much of regional Queensland as possible.

“We will always choose the best appropriate mode of transport, but there’s been a long tradition of premiers using the government air wing and that’s what we’ll continue to do to spend as much time in regional Queensland as possible,” he said.

Mr Miles went on to say the government had recently increased their annual investment in the Bruce Highway.

“The Bruce Highway is really important, we continue to invest in project to make the Bruce Highway safer and more resilient, I announced recently we would increase our annual investment in the Bruce Highway from 200 to $250 million a year commencing in 2027 and that underlines our ongoing commitment to the Bruce Highway. We know how important it is to Queensland,” he said.

Help Our Highway campaign to fix the Bruce Hwy across Queensland.

The Morning Bulletin as part of News Corp’s Help Our Highway campaign is pushing for an overhaul of the Bruce.

We see and hear of horrific crashes that claim lives in the Bruce Highway almost weekly, vehicles are being damaged because of potholes and just last year a military expert described the highway as “not fit for purpose” after a horror crash at Bajool involving a truck carrying an army tank and multiple vehicles.

Small country towns, which often only have a pub and servo, are the beating heart of Queensland and if people choose to fly along the coast instead of drive because of the state of the highway it’s only going to cause a ripple effect and devastate them, too.

How many more lives, and perhaps regional towns, will be lost before something is actually done to fix the issue?