Disused road back on the radar as Kuranda range alternative

A long-forgotten and controversial transport link could potentially take the pressure off one of the state’s worst highway black spots, but not everyone agrees on the viability of its public use. FIND OUT MORE

A CONTROVERSIAL transport link known as the road time forget could potentially form part of a solution to traffic chaos on one of the state’s worst highway black spots.

Completed in 1989, Southedge Wangetti Rd, known locally as Quaid Rd snakes through mountain rainforest of the Macalister Range beginning near Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures at Wangetti to emerge on Black Mountain Rd. The road eventually links up with the Mulligan Highway at Southedge.

Controversy has surrounded the private road which was granted planning approval, but was never gazetted due to an application made under World Heritage Properties Conservation Act following a change of government when Joh Bjelke-Petersen lost power in 1987.

The land was later declared the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in 1989. Grand plans for a massive housing estate at Southedge were shelved and now access to the road is blocked by heavy gates at each end.

A horror heavy vehicle crash on the Kuranda range road on Wednesday triggered an eight hour delay days after the release of a widely criticised $1.6m Tablelands access report that found no justification for a major upgrade based on traffic volumes.

On Thursday the Cairns Post hit the accelerator on a campaign to drive action on a solution to the Kuranda range road situation, called Fix Our Broken Link.

Gates block access to Quaid Rd at Wangetti. Picture: Peter Carruthers

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch said it was time to reconsider Quaid Rd as an option given a state government reluctance to finance a costly Kuranda range road upgrade.

“It’s a viable alternative to the Rex and also creates another ring road,” he said.

The scene of Wednesday’s truck rollover on the Kuranda Range Road section of the Kennedy Highway. Picture: Brendan Radke

“It is a practical detour, because whatever we do on the Kuranda range, there is always going to be blockages.”

Last week Barron River MP Craig Crawford ruled out any possibility of the road being used to take the pressure off the Kuranda range road.

“At the moment it will never be an option,” he said.

“The problem with Quaid Rd is that it delivers traffic into the wrong areas (and) it would mean that we would have significant traffic problems then coming through areas like Ellis Beach and Wangetti.

The Kuranda River bridge on the Kennedy Highway is be operating as a single lane, with road traffic controllers operating traffic lights from 9am to 3pm, as RoadTek engineers check the structural integrity of the roadworks. Picture: Brendan Radke

“It’s unfortunate that it was built where it was and I think that the amount of money that we would need to invest in Quaids Rd, if we were ever to bring it up to standard wouldn’t (offer) bang for buck.”

Mr Entsch referencing the Cairns to Northern Tablelands Access Strategy described the road as a “bloody good, easy drive that should have been included in this $1.6m farce”.

On Wednesday Barron River MP, Craig Crawford proposed further regulation of heavy vehicles on the Kuranda range, stating if trucks continued to cause lengthy delays “we are going to have to tell them to get off” the road.

But Transport Minister Mark Bailey said, “we will not be banning trucks on Kuranda range road”.

Wet Tropics Management Authority and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service provided a joint statement on the public use of the road.

“(The agencies) don’t not support the public use of the road due to the potential impacts on world heritage values, these include increased impacts on endangered, vulnerable and rare species, connectivity; and other impacts such as increased spread of weeds,” a spokesman said.

The police Forensic Crash Unit investigation into the major truck crash on Wednesday is ongoing but its understood there was mechanical issues with the truck.

A Cairns Hospital spokeswoman said a 29-year-old man injured in Wednesday’s crash had been discharged and a 41-year-old man remained in a stable condition.

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Originally published as Disused road back on the radar as Kuranda range alternative