Residents concerned as work to start within months on Charlton prison work camp outside Toowoomba

Work is expected to start before the end of the financial year on the 12-person low-custody facility outside Toowoomba, but residents are still concerned about a lack of consultation.

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

Landowners who are set to become neighbours to a dozen criminals working at a new $1.5m prison work camp are furious about the lack of consultation around the project.

Work is expected to start before the end of the financial year on the 12-person low-custody facility off Nass Road in Charlton, about 11km from the Toowoomba CBD.

It comes more than three years after it was approved by the Toowoomba Regional Council in April 2018.

A Queensland Corrective Services spokesman said any prisoner who has been convicted of sexual assault or murder will not be housed at the camp, along with anyone who is currently serving a life sentence.

That has provided little reassurance to residents living just a few kilometres from the site who have fought strongly against the centre’s approval, arguing housing prisoners so close to isolated rural properties posed an unacceptable risk.

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

A department spokesman said the project will now move to the next stage.

“Queensland Corrective Services has been working positively with the local council and traditional owners to start construction of the Toowoomba work camp this year,” the statement said.

“The project will cost around $1.5m and will provide a valuable community service to the Toowoomba region.

“It will add to the $3.29 million worth of labour provided through community service projects to regional Queensland in 2020-21.”

But landholder Bron Loughlin, who spoke on behalf of residents against the project back in 2018, said she hadn’t heard anything from either the council or QCS.

“There have been no updates from either party,” she said.

Minor changes to the work camp were approved last week by the council.

The work camp was originally planned by the council for land at the Jondaryan Woolshed back in 2016.

The goal of the new facility was to provide a workforce to fill the void left by the closure of the Darling Downs Correctional Centre in 2012.

This proposal was withdrawn in July of 2016, before the new Charlton camp was proposed about 12 months later.