Charlton prison work camp to go ahead with Queensland Corrective Services to begin construction in late 2022

A controversial prison work camp is set to go ahead west of Toowoomba, with Queensland Corrective Services announcing that construction will begin in the coming months. Here’s the latest.

A work camp that will house up to 12 low security prisoners will be built about 11km from Toowoomba’s CBD, with Queensland Corrective Services confirming that construction of the $1.5 million facility will begin in the coming months.

The new Toowoomba Work Camp will be located on Nass Road in Charlton, with work to start in late 2022.

The Toowoomba Regional Council has proposed minor changes to a controversial prison work camp at Charlton.

A Queensland Corrective Services spokeswoman said the progress comes after “extensive consultation” with both Toowoomba Regional Council and First Nations stakeholders.

“The work camp, designed to accommodate up to 12 low security supervised prisoners is expected to be completed in mid-2023,” she said.

“The work camps provide a valuable source of labour and assistance, including in times of natural and other disasters, and the work carried out by prisoners includes things like maintaining fences, cemeteries, heritage sites, playgrounds and showgrounds.”

Toowoomba Regional Council plans to build a detention facility work camp on land at Nass Rd in Charlton.

The work camp has had a chequered history to this stage, with council first giving their approval to the project in April 2018, despite significant opposition from nearby residents who claimed the facility, designed for low-risk prisoners, was an unacceptable risk.

A total of 13 work camps are currently in operation throughout regional and rural Queensland, which QCS say provide a chance for low security prisoners to develop employment skills and “give back to regional communities through work projects”.

“The Work Camp Program has been making a difference to Queensland for more than 30 years – the first one rising from the devastating floods at Charleville in 1990 when 40 prisoners from Brisbane went to help with the flood clean-up,” the QCS spokeswoman said.