Gympie residents of Cullinane Rd want their road maintained

A new bridge that doesn’t quite reach the road, potholes, fissures and thick mud - residents and businesses just outside of Gympie are losing customers, cars and sleep over the state of their road, which was bad before the rain but is now a living nightmare.

A group of Gympie residents are calling on council to fix their road, fed up with navigating potholes, ditches, ravines, slippery surfaces and getting their cars bogged and risking damage everytime it rains.

A 15-minute drive south of the Gympie CBD, turning onto Hall Rd at Bunnings, the road abruptly changes between a one-lane bridge to a brand-new fenced bridge crossing the Gympie Bypass.

Once over that bridge, a quick bump turns the road from shiney black white-lined bitumen to the faded-grey of Noosa Rd, a 90km/h zone peppered with long lines of patched potholes.

Cattle farmer Helen Steele calls this section of Noosa Rd the “training ground” for Cullinane Rd, a 2km stretch that ends in a cul-de-sac, which in the past three years has become the changing face of where agricultural farm life meets entrepreneurial small businesses.

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Cullinane Rd residents are demanding their road be maintained after years of navigating potholes, mini ravines, and bogging cars. Picture: Christine Schindler

While the farms and businesses operate in 2024, the road looks as if it was built in 1990, with a few patch-up jobs after floods and droughts, despite the amount of traffic “almost doubling in three years”.

Six residents met at the entrance to the road on Wednesday, frustrated after slipping and sliding for the past few days in the rain.

The community includes a hairdresser and a hat business, a few cattle properties, and a macadamia and a ginger farm, and has become close knit after rescuing each other with 4wds from the slippery, muddy road - they even brainstormed how to fix it themselves.

Across the road from where they stand is a yellow “rough surface” sign, which cattle farmer Lee Wason said only appeared on Tuesday after everyone using the road started calling and complaining to the council.

Cullinane Rd residents frustrated over no maintenance for years.

Fiona King, another cattle farmer, said she had been calling the council asking about the road since October 2023.

She said she was constantly given “end of month” timeframes, the latest being “end of February”.

Sacha Usher runs a hairdressing salon from her home and said she had lost clients as they simply refused to risk the road.

Country Trucker Hats owner Brett Hanly, who has a warehouse along the road, said he had to “fish out” a little Yaris recently.

In one section, a 5cm-deep creek has formed in the middle of the road; Ms Usher navigated it carefully in her Renault hatchback.

“I’ll just pick my best route and hope for the best,” she said.

She next drove over a bridge bordered by potholes.

Cullinane Rd in Mothar Mt.

“This is a new bridge the council were so proud of,” she said.

“The problem is the road doesn’t connect to it.”

Garry Sheppard, who has a macadamia farm on the road, said the issue was that the road has been neglected for so long.

“It’s just a shame, the state of the road at the moment is going to cost council a massive amount compared to if they had just done regular maintenance,” Mr Sheppard said.

Ms King estimated together the residents pay around $80,000 a year in rates, and as the rates become more onerous she, and the other residents wanted answers as to where their money was being spent, if not on maintaining the roads.

“What are we paying for, rates for rubbish?” Ms King said.

Gympie Regional Council has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as Gympie residents of Cullinane Rd want their road maintained