Construction begins on Mission Australia’s $150m social housing project in Toowoomba
Work has started on a major social housing project in Toowoomba, which promises to provide low-cost homes for 300 people and inject more than $100m into the economy, however the project has stirred controversy.
Development
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Construction has started on a massive social and affordable housing project near the city CBD, which will unlock low-cost homes for more than 300 people and inject more than $100m into the local economy.
Contractor McNab already has boots on the ground at Princess St in Newtown to create a 185-unit, six-storey complex for national housing and social services organisation Mission Australia.
Queensland Treasurer and Toowoomba South MP David Janetzki helped turn sod at the site, which was previously a carpark for the nearby Clifford Gardens Shopping Centre and sits directly opposite the prestigious Glennie School.
The major project, which was approved by Labor prior to last year’s state government election, has received full backing from the new Crisafulli government as it embarks on an ambitious plan to unlock thousands of new homes over the next decade.
About 90 per cent of the project, which is expected to cost upwards of $150m, will be completed by local contractors.
The development is the largest undertaken by McNab in the company’s hometown of Toowoomba, and will be one of the biggest single injections of new higher-density housing in the Garden City once completed in mid-2027.
McNab executive chairman Michael McNab said as many as 240 workers would be on-site at any one time.
“It will get about 220 or 240 at its peak but once we get cracking, we’ll average in the mid-100s to 160 for 18 months,” he said.
“There will be good numbers on the site – it’s a great site because there’s lots of areas to lay down and at other big CBD sites there’s nothing.”
The planning of the project through the state government’s ministerial infrastructure designation pathway, an alternative to traditional local government approval, was not without controversy.
Both local residents and the Glennie School raised concerns about the impacts of traffic and parking down local streets, as well as privacy for boarding school students and general impacts on amenity.
Mr McNab said both the contractor and Mission Australia wanted to keep stakeholders informed as the project progressed.
“I’m really committed for us to bring the community on the journey while we’re building it and I know Mission and the school have been talking,” he said.
“We had presentations nine months before we started work — we put a lot of time and energy into it and when the first feedback came back, we changed the plans a lot.
“They still have concerns, but I’d like to think in two years time there’ll be high-fiving us — that’d be my view of it in 12 months as the builder.”
Mission Australia’s national property and housing executive Chris Bratchford said the organisation would manage the complex once completed, providing support to tenants who might require help with a range of other issues.
“Once we’re up and operating, we have a really strong focus on community development and getting the community engaged,” he said.
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