Toowoomba Regional Council votes for $10m upgrade plan for region’s unformed, unmaintained roads after heated debate

Residents living along some of the Toowoomba region’s worst roads have scored a major win, after councillors voted following a heated debate to upgrade some of them. Here’s what they decided.

Some of the Toowoomba region’s worst roads could soon be upgraded after the council voted for a controversial $10 million program over five years.

Councillors at last Tuesday’s heated committee meeting endorsed deputy mayor Geoff McDonald’s alternate motion, which prioritised $2 million per year from 2023-24 to “rectify existing lower order road matters to achieve minimum access standard road for lower order roads”.

The move is a big win for hundreds of residents across the local government area living on several unmaintained roads that are vulnerable to flooding and other poor conditions.

One particularly egregious example is Oestreich Road in Wellcamp, whose locals have been particularly vocal in their calls for an upgrade.

The 1.6km stretch, which is part the region’s 2900km network of unformed roads and unopened reserves, is so bad it has swallowed a car and is traversable only by four-wheel drives.

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.

Upgrading these roads could cost the TRC as much as $400,000 per kilometre, meaning fixing the entire network would be as high as $1.2 billion.

However much of the nearly two-hour discussion revolved around the loopholes in the region’s planning scheme that allowed homes to be approved and certified on roads not in Toowoomba Regional Council’s register.

This was reflected in Mr McDonald’s motion, which sought to have it clarified in the new Toowoomba planning scheme.

Infrastructure general manager Mike Brady said the current scheme was open to interpretation around what an acceptable road was for a new house.

“People need to get to wherever they want to go on a gravel or sealed road — to let them build a house on less than that now or into the future is quite remiss and is only going to cause future problems,” he said.

“The reading of our current planning scheme has a dwelling has safe, all-weather road access.

“The acceptable outcome attached to this point unfortunately is only that formed road access is provided, it doesn’t have to say it has to be maintained, so that’s the challenge we have with the current planning scheme.”

Huddson Young points to a car that became trapped while driving along Oestreich Road in Wellcamp. Residents living along it say it needs an upgrade so emergency services and other organisations can reach homes.

When councillor Bill Cahill asked if an amendment could be created to fix the loophole in the interim, development services manager Danielle Fitzpatrick said it would arguably be cheaper for a hypothetical new house approval matter to be dealt with in court than a new amendment would cost in council resources.

Councillor Melissa Taylor, who voted for the $10 million funding, urged council to fix a problem it had created to stop frustration from residents and abuse suffered by TRC staff.

“The problem is so palpable, every single one of us has received distressing photos and emails from our residents,” she said.

I want to understand what levers we as council actually have to fix this before the implementation of the planning scheme.

“This stress and this abuse and this frustration cannot continue until 2026.”

But infrastructure chair councillor Carol Taylor spoke against the funding, saying residents living along unmaintained roads currently had the option to pay for half of the upgrade themselves.

“It needs to be stated that if people build on a piece of land where there is no road and they’re not willing to commit towards that, then our entire community, including pensioners and those struggling with cost of living pressures will all pay,” she said.

“I think the community needs to be very aware of it, because this has been a very one-sided (debate) on this in the press and other places.”