Toowoomba company Wagners offers 200,000 cubic metres of soil to council for Quarry Gardens project

Toowoomba’s richest family made a generous offer to donate millions of dollars of resources to start the long-talked about Quarry Gardens project, but council turned it down. Here’s what happened.

John Wagner's company has offered to donate 200,000 cubic metres of soil to the council to help kickstart the Quarry Gardens project.

The Toowoomba region’s most powerful family has made a generous multimillion-dollar offer to assist with the development of the Quarry Gardens project — but only if the council starts work on it soon.

The Wagner family has reiterated its promise to donate 200,000 cubic metres of soil to assist with earthworks at the Bridge Street quarry site.

The company valued the material at between $2-3m.

Wagner Corporation chairman John Wagner said the company originally wrote to the council in 2019 with the offer, but said he had not received a response.

It comes after council included the rehabilitation of the quarry in its special pandemic response capital works program last year.

Mr Wagner said the proposed Quarry Gardens project – which has been in discussion for decades – would become a legacy project for Toowoomba and needed bold leadership to make it a reality.

“We can’t do much more than that, it’s a fair gift to the city – we would like to see all and sundry get behind the project,” he said.

“We’d like to see volunteers included and we’d like to see something happen on the site soon.

“This offer was made a number of years ago and we’ve heard no response.”

Mr Wagner said the donation did not create an obligation for the council to use Wagner Corp at any point on the rehabilitation or development of the site.

In response to the offer, Bridge Street Quarry advisory committee chair Councillor Kerry Shine said the council had responded at the time and turned down the offer, citing the infancy of the project.

“Council is investigating options to rehabilitate the site and has engaged a specialist geotechnical team to undertake this work,” he said.

“The quarry will need to be rehabilitated prior to further development works taking place, including designs for a future garden.

“Council has replied to an earlier offer of soil for the quarry site from the Wagners.

“At the time, council could not accept the proposal at this early stage of the project.

“However, council greatly appreciates the Wagners’ offer and their support for the project.”

Mr Shine said the Quarry Gardens project required a three-step process, of which external funding would be required.

“The feasibility study recommended public investment in the first two stages, which will be subject to further budget deliberations,” he said.

“The third stage looks to attract private investment, which is the subject of ongoing discussions by the advisory committee.

“The quarry is not included in council’s current 10-year capital works program.”