Toowoomba North-South Corridor: Greens Senator Larissa Waters calls on controversial project to be scrapped

A controversial major road project that would run through hundreds of properties should be scrapped by the state government, according to a Queensland senator.

Queensland Senator Larissa Waters has urged the state government to either abandon or drastically change its proposal for a massive transport corridor around Toowoomba, calling it a “dangerous thought bubble”.

The longstanding Greens senator and environmental defender travelled up the Toowoomba range to meet with residents north of the city potentially affected by the proposed infrastructure project.

The corridor proposal, which is not slated to be built for decades, has received significant pushback from residents angry about the suggested route’s impacts and confused about the size and scale of the project.

Ms Waters’ visit on Thursday came about six weeks after the closure of community consultation, which was twice extended following demands from landholders.

Discussing the state government's proposed North-South transport corridor through the Toowoomba region are local residents Kerry Schemioneck, Sandra Willis, Glen Polzin and Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters.

Speaking at the edge of the corridor near Cooby Dam at Meringandan, the senator accused the state government of failing to consider the environmental impacts as well as the livelihoods of residents across the Toowoomba region.

“Hopefully (we can) put pressure on the state government to not proceed with this ludicrous proposal, which is just overblown,” she said.

“A 230m-wide corridor for a road – goodness me, I don’t know what they’re going to drive down it to need it that wide, but it’s too big for a proposal in this area.

“I can’t see any justification from the TMR that would in any way overcome the loss of people’s homes, farmland, sacred sites, koala habitat and the beautiful rural nature of this area.

“It would be a waste of money, wreck people’s livelihoods and beautiful environmentally-significant areas, and the state government surely has some better things to spend public money on.”

Meringandan resident Kerry Schemioneck says her property is considered key koala habitat.

Several points along the proposed corridor north of Toowoomba are known koala habitats, with residents like Kerry Schemioneck showing evidence of koalas on her property.

Discussing the state government's proposed North-South transport corridor through the Toowoomba region are Highfields resident and activist Amy Clark (left, with daughter Bonnie) and Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters.

Senator Waters said the Department of Transport and Main Roads had also mishandled the consultation process, calling it “bungled”.

“You couldn’t not bungle this worse than the state government has,” she said.

“They’ve totally bungled this whole process – for someone to get a letter that their home is at risk of being turned into a highway and it being the first they had heard of it, and that there was only a matter of weeks for their consultation on that proposal to occur, it’s just atrocious.

“I’ve seen a lot of bad ideas in my time and this is probably one of the worst handled consultations I’ve seen and the community is rightly distressed by this.”

It is unclear when the state government will arrive at a decision to proceed, having received more than 750 submissions ranging across Toowoomba.

Activist and Highfields resident Amy Clark said she wanted more information from TMR about the project’s position.

“They haven’t given us a confirmed date of when they’re going to make a decision,” she said.

“I know they need time, but I feel like the information is there for them.

“I would really like to see it re-routed or scrapped — I’m not anti-infrastructure but I think it needs to be the right infrastructure.