Logan to get 20k new homes with Chambers Flat wastewater facility

A wastewater treatment plant will open the floodgates on 20,000 new homes in this Queensland growth area – with calls for a train line too.

Infrastructure and Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie (centre) with Logan Mayor Jon Raven and UDIA chief executive officer Kirsty Chessher Brown. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Tens of thousands of new homes will be unlocked in one of Australia’s fastest-growing regions, prompting a renewed push for the expansion of a critical rail network.

The state government revealed it would allocate $135m from the new $2bn Residential Activation Fund would build a wastewater treatment facility at Chambers Flat to give Logan City Council the ability to build 20,000 new homes.

The new homes, along with tens of thousands more at Yarrabilba and Flagstone, prompted Mayor Jon Raven to call for a new train line to be built.

He noted the $3bn investment into Gold Coast Faster Rail and the upgrade of Loganlea Station was already underway.

“There is another train line as well that goes through from Acacia Ridge down out to Bromelton,” he said.

“We’d love to see that come online as soon as possible, but that’s still 2042 realistically.

“The next steps are talking to the state government about connecting through to the train line that already exists in Springfield for us to connect to from the greater Flagstone priority development area.

Yarrabilba is part of the growth corridor southwest of Brisbane.

“That’ll be much more affordable than building a new train line and it means we can deliver access to that public transport so much sooner for that community.”

Infrastructure and Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie said priority development areas included consideration of required public transport.

“It’s not just a matter of declaring it a priority development area and job done, that’s not the case,” he said.

“With priority development areas they’re not just 20-to-50,000 homes overnight, it’s a long stretch – it can be 15 to 20 years.

“You do have to plan the roads and infrastructure but they are done in conjunction with the council.”

Mr Raven said the government’s $135m allocation for wastewater infrastructure would be matched with $200m from the council for pipes.

“If we hadn’t received this funding we would not have been able to afford to build the wastewater treatment plant,” he said.

“We would have had to have stopped approving houses by the end of 2027 because we just would not have been able to service them.”

Originally published as Logan to get 20k new homes with Chambers Flat wastewater facility