Toowoomba council defers vote on unformed roads after Wellcamp residents on Oestreich Road want upgrade of 1.6km stretch

The council faces a bill worth hundreds of millions of dollars if it were to fix the Toowoomba region’s worst roads. But in some good news for locals, the councillors have deferred its decision.

Residents living along Oestreich Road in Wellcamp want the Toowoomba Regional Council to upgrade it, citing serious safety concerns. They say its condition after a small amount of rain is akin to a four-wheel drive track.

UPDATE: The cost of upgrading the Toowoomba region’s 1500km of unformed roads could be as high as $600m, with the astronomical figure highlighted in response to residents’ requests.

In a move that will give hope to locals living along some of the region’s worst roads, the councillors voted to defer its decision on how it would approach the issue until a future meeting.

It comes after people living along Oestreich Road in Wellcamp demanded the council upgrade it, after significant wet weather events this year turned the 2.7km stretch into a four-wheel-drive track.

Locals say it is so difficult to traverse that Australia Post won’t deliver mail and emergency services would struggle to reach properties at a time of crisis.

Oestreich Road, which is part of the 1511km of unformed roads across the region not maintained by the council, has returned a longstanding issue back into the public spotlight and raised questions about the TRC’s responsibilities for both road users and residents.

It has also highlighted problems with the council’s current planning scheme which only requires new houses to be attached to an all-weather road – a term that is “open to interpretation”.

Oestreich Road has had to take more residents moving into the area, increasing impacts on its condition.

In his address to councillors at Tuesday, transport and drainage planning manager Rod Betts said the council had been hit with dozens of requests for road upgrades due to an unusually wet 18-month period.

Currently, the council says upgrading an unformed track to an all-weather gravel road would cost between $200,000 and $400,000 per kilometre.

He said the cost of upgrading 12 of the most requested roads, which included Oestreich, would be between $4.8m and nearly $10m.

The entire unformed road network would cost between $300m and $600m, something Mr Betts said was “simply not affordable”.

The original recommendation was to “take no further action” other than to install appropriate signs to warn traffic and consider a policy that would only move a road upgrade forward if residents offered to pay for half of it.

But deputy mayor Geoff McDonald was among several councillors to suggest deferring the decision, arguing the council should consider developing a strategy to address the issue.

“We’re pigeonholing to say we can’t do this, but maybe there’s another way to do this,” he said.

“We need to look at this in a different light, so I’d like some different thinking around this, perhaps some thinking from outside council.

“That (motion) would be quite a negative response to the community, that we’re not going to consider this — it’s a problem that isn’t going to go away, it’s going to get worse.”

Councillor Rebecca Vonhoff agreed, saying the original motion did nothing to improve the situation of residents currently affected.

“What’s in the report conflates several issues, and the broadbrush approach sits uncomfortably with me,” she said.

“What’s before us, this doesn’t make the problem disappear, and how does this serve the community?

“We’ve got to be able to do hard things and serve the community.”

Mr Betts said the sticking point came back to finances and the council’s long-term sustainability.

“The difficulty is the dollars, the question then is how are those dollars provided,” he said.

“Does council wish to construct some of these roads, whether it’s funded by applicants or us or through grants?

“Does council want to start looking at roads we haven’t looked at before?”

Councillor Bill Cahill cautioned his colleagues to make sure they “did their homework” on the matter.

“We need to have a close discussion and a detailed discussion on this,” he said.

Infrastructure chair Councillor Carol Taylor said she was sympathetic to residents, but said the council couldn’t lose sight of the costs.

“We’re not uncaring — in a perfect world, everyone could have everything they want,” she said.

Residents demand upgrade of terrible road

It’s a road so bad, cars are swallowed up by it, and locals need to be ferried by tractors to go to work and school.

Posties won’t deliver mail on it and garbage workers can’t use it to empty wheelie bins.

It’s the reality for Huddson Smith and his parents Jason and Mikaela, who are among 30 residents calling on the council to upgrade Oestreich Road reserve in Wellcamp.

The condition of the 1.6km stretch of black soil road has become so bad that only four-wheel-drives can traverse it after even a small amount of rain.

Residents living along Oestreich Road in Wellcamp want the Toowoomba Regional Council to upgrade it, citing serious safety concerns. They say its condition after a small amount of rain is akin to a four-wheel drive track.

Mr Smith said the road’s condition had deteriorated to the point where emergency services might not be able to reach properties during a crisis.

“Our biggest concern is trying to get out in worst-case conditions, or emergency services can’t get in,” he said.

“The biggest issue is the drainage, everything is silted up so the road is the drain which is why there’s all this water here.

“We’ve got a farming business and we can’t get trucks in or out to sell our produce.”

Oestreich Road residents Jason Smith (left) and Dean Linke discuss the poor quality of the road reserve in Wellcamp.

The road also has an appetite for cars, with a neighbour’s sedan falling into a huge gap in the middle of the road several months ago.

Tow trucks haven’t been able to reach it yet.

Mrs Smith said her husband had to ferry the family across the sludge, either by tractor or an old car equipped with mud tyres, to reach their main vehicles parked on a neighbouring property.

“We’ve provided so much evidence to them, including medical certificates from our GP, as one of our sons has a medical condition,” she said.

“If we get stuck and trapped it will be hard to get out also — if there’s a fire, what do we do?”

Residents will find out the council’s response at Tuesday’s committee meetings, after years of advocacy to staff and elected officials.

“It’s been frustratingly slow and (council) won’t tell you any information,” Mr Smith said.

Councillor Carol Taylor said locals needed to understand the financial constraints of council, pointing out that a public road reserve was not the same as a regular road.

“It is what it is, and in a perfect world we’d like to be able to give people what they want, but where does the money come from?” she said.

“The report will come to council and it will have all the options regarding this.”

Tuesday’s meeting will explore whether the council will explore whether to upgrade the 1500km of unformed roads across the region.