Robbie Katter speaks on frustration over unused buildings in Charters Towers

A NQ MP is frustrated after disused buildings were badly damaged by fire after calls for them to be turned into accommodation fell on deaf ears. Here’s what he wants to happen.

After an Australia Day fire which “fully engulfed” an unused building at a Charters Towers residential aged-care home, a North Queensland MP has expressed his frustration and says still wants to see to the buildings repurposed.

A crime scene was declared on Sunday night after emergency services were called to the Eventide Residential Aged Care facility on Dalrymple Road just after 6:20pm, to find the abandoned building on fire.

Investigations are ongoing, with police asking for anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage to come forward.

Eventide is owned by the Queensland government and includes 13 clusters of eight single rooms.

Robbie Katter has previously called for the buildings, which are no longer in use by Eventide to be repurposed into housing to keep up with demand that had increased due to an ageing population in the region.

On Tuesday, Mr Katter said his reaction to the fire was one of “immense frustration”.

“It’s a manifestation of that frustration, just seeing reusable assets that could address a huge problem, literally just going up in flames,” he said on Tuesday.

The Leader of the Katter Australia Party Robbie Katter speaks at a press conference outside Queensland parliament. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

“Everyone is so quick to just bulldoze and make new these days. The cost of providing another 40 or 50 home units of that style in Charters Towers, the cost and time and effort would be incredibly large.”

Mr Katter said with the demand for rental vacancies in Charters Towers, following a surge in the town’s population after Covid, the lack of available housing was affecting the community in a number of ways.

He said it was worth investing money into repurposing buildings and spaces, instead of letting them go to waste.

“The more regional and remote you go, people are more practical thinking. They see life in an asset, they’ll put the work into it. The deeper you go into the larger metropolitan areas, you seem to encounter the culture where people just like to say rip it down and put a high rise or high density type development there,” he said.

An abandoned building on fire at Eventide Residential Aged Care on January 26. Picture: Facebook/ Alicia Foster

“We’re just happy to get anything in remote areas. When you see something that’s still have utility and can be repurposed it’s really offensive.

“I didn’t think up this initiative myself, this was in response to multiple inquiries, people complain that we’ve got no accommodation or housing in Charters Towers.”

Mr Katter said he was hopeful of future plans to make the most of the unused space, saying another interested developer had recently reach out to him.

The Eventide buildings are owned by the Queensland Government and in 2022 a private developer expressed interest in the facility.

Mayor at the time, Frank Beveridge, said the area had been earmarked for the new hospital that Charters Towers has been campaigning for.

Posting to Facebook on Sunday, Mr Katter said it was ‘very disappointing’ to see the buildings set alight after attempts to repurpose the buildings.

Originally published as Robbie Katter speaks on frustration over unused buildings in Charters Towers