Dumped jet ski, piles of rubbish sparks call to move Beenleigh tip for new road

These are the disgusting photos of bushland used as a Christmas rubbish dump, infuriating residents who want to move the local tip.

Tonnes of rubbish has been dumped over the Christmas break in bushland at Beenleigh, sparking calls for the local tip to close to unclog a traffic bottleneck.

Residents living near a southside tip, close to where a man died on his motorcycle, are calling for it to be closed and turned into a road after an illegal Christmas dumping spree left the area an eyesore.

Tonnes of rubbish, including tyres, fridges, mattresses, old paint and even a jet ski has been dumped in bush, just metres from the front gate of Logan City Council’s Beenleigh Waste and Recycling Facility.

The eyesore, less than 900m from Logan City Council’s tip at Beenleigh, was where residents last year found hundreds of dumped letters believed to have been stolen from a Logan property.

One of the piles of rubbish dumped off the side of Wuraga Rd at Beenleigh, less than 900m from the council tip, where it costs money to dump some items such as fridges, sofas and mattresses.

Traffic around the tip, along the busy Wuraga Rd, was at the centre of a state investigation late last year after 29-year-old Beenleigh motorcyclist Robert Buchbach died at the intersection of Tallagandra Rd and Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd, a major peak-hour bottleneck.

Traffic on Wuraga Rd has to pass the tip to get to the deadly intersection before heading south to Beaudesert or north to Beenleigh and the M1.

Beenleigh man Robert Buchbach died at the Tallagandra Rd intersection in November.

Residents at the Tallagandra Rd intersection where Mr Buchbach died. They say the road is near the tip and is often clogged up with traffic.

Neighbours said closing the tip would free up strategic Logan council land which could then be used to replace the notorious Tallagandra Rd intersection, where Mr Buchbach died on November 31.

Logan City Council said it had not made any decisions about relocating any of its five dump facilities and would fine anyone found to be illegally dumping.

Fines of more than $130 can be issued for those found to be illegally dumping and people and businesses can be put on notice if the dumped rubbish is on private property.

Some of the letters, believed to be stolen from a Logan address, were dumped at the illegal tip site in August.

Resident Jodie Batten said criminals were using the illegal bush dump site to offload unwanted stolen goods while others were tipping items in the bush to avoid paying dump fees.

She said residents, who had formed a community advocacy group, wanted the tip closed and the site used for a road to connect Logan’s rapidly growing western suburbs to Beenleigh in the east.

“The tip is too small for this area and doesn’t take all types of waste so people are forced to line up in their cars with the traffic banking up on Wuraga Rd, where the motorcyclist died in November,” she said.

“Wuraga Rd is very busy and the traffic is getting worse and yet the council has done nothing about it and has ignored the illegal dumping in the surrounding bush for years.

“A new intersection with Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd could be built on the tip land which would cut out the need for many people to use the Tallagandra intersection during peak hours.

“It would also mean that no trees would have to be knocked down and no bushland affected for a new road which the council was proposing to take the pressure off Wuraga Rd.”

An aerial view of the site where the rubbish was dumped, which is within walking distance to the Beenleigh tip.

The state and federal governments started $35 million of safety upgrades to Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd last year but none of the works included the fatal Tallagandra Rd intersection at Beenleigh.

Logan City Council has mooted plans to build a road from Mt Warren Boulevard on the eastern side of Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd to Wuraga Rd on the western side of the four-lane road.

It is currently assessing options for an improved road connection between Wuraga Rd and Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd at Bahrs Scrub and has listed Wuraga Rd as an east-west Urban Arterial Road in its planning scheme.

An aerial view of the distance between the illegal dumping site and the Beenleigh tip marked by the blue dotted line with Tallagandra St to the north and Mt Warren Boulevard to the south.

Federal MP for the area Bert van Manen (LNP) has also raised the issue with the council.

But residents of Mt Warren Park have opposed most plans to connect Wuraga Rd to Mt Warren Blvd across Beaudesert Rd.

Mt Warren Park resident Belinda Thompson said connecting the western side of Beaudesert Rd to Mt Warren Blvd would just shift the traffic bottleneck to the eastern side of the four-lane road.

Some of the rubbish strewn across the bushland.

Sofas and tyres dumped just off Wuraga Rd.

More dumped

Mattresses and car parts.

“The council has approved all these large housing estates on small lots in the western suburbs but has failed to plan for the increased traffic,” Mrs Thompson said.

“There will be hundreds of cars coming from Brookhaven, Yarrabilba and Bahrs Scrub estates with traffic being dumped on to Mt Warren Blvd, where there are three schools and an aged care centre along with a new 7-Eleven.

“We need better planning and a proper community meeting with the council planners to work out plans for the future.”

Rubbish included mattresses, fridges and sofas.

Beenleigh resident James Herbst said the Wuraga Rd eyesore was also posing a danger to residents, many of whom were paying rates to keep the area tidy and use the tip.

“The rubbish highlights the problem you get when you have a small waste transfer station that can only take select rubbish,” he said.

“When you have a council tip right next to bushland, this is what you can expect to happen.

“Relocating the tip would also allow for Wuraga Road’s dangerous downward ‘S-bend’ curve to be straightened directly onto Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd with no land resumption required.”

Logan council said it would continue to consult with the community as its road proposal developed.