Residents share their pain after Southern Outlet upgrade news

Residents whose homes have been spared from demolition to make way for a fifth lane on the Southern Outlet are counting the emotional and financial costs of nearly two years of gut-wrenching uncertainty.

RESIDENTS whose homes have been spared from demolition to make way for a fifth lane on the Southern Outlet are counting the emotional and financial costs of nearly two years of gut-wrenching uncertainty.

The state government announced this week that three houses would be demolished and four more properties affected by the project, down from a total of 17 as first announced.

A letterbox drop followed by a knock on the door from a government official in March 2021 was the first inkling Brett Ross and his partner Pip had that they might lose their home.

“Pip and I stood in this sunroom and the engineer from WSP said you will not be able to live in this house,” Brett said.

It was just days before a builder was due to begin a long-planned upgrade to the property.

In the months since, they have borne the cost of continued uncertainty, repeated house valuations, of storage of property, of finding a new home – only to be told theirs would be spared.

The couple estimates that they are out of pocket upwards of $100,000 largely due to the increase in costs for the building project they were forced to cancel and which can now finally go ahead.

Brett Ross who is a Dynnyrne home owner who put off renovations for two years waiting to see if his home would be compulsory acquired by the state government to allow widening of the Southern Outlet. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Despite appeals to then Premier Peter Gutwein and to Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson, no help from the government will be forthcoming.

“It’s disgusting how we have been treated,” Brett said.

“Mr Ferguson didn’t come out to any of our community meetings despite frequent invitations to do so.”

Pip said she struggled emotionally after receiving the initial news.

“We can accept that sometimes the government has a genuine need to acquire people’s homes,” she said.

“However, in a democracy, this should involve a timely, transparent, empathetic and fair process. To inform 17 homeowners that their houses would be taken and then fail to communicate with them for months on end was emotionally torturous.”

In a letter dated Thursday, Mr Ferguson told the couple there would be no compensation for the trouble and expense they had been put through.

“As there is no acquisition required from your property, there is no mechanism under the Land Acquisition Act … to provide compensation for any expense you have incurred in relation to your proposed building project,” he wrote.

Labor member for Clark Ella Haddad said the government had put those affected through “incredible hardship and anguish. “These residents have been put through hell by this Minister,” she said.

On Friday, the RACT welcomed progress on installing a fifth lane on Hobart’s Southern Outlet.

Three homes to be demolished for Southern Outlet’s fifth lane

ONLY three homes would be demolished in order to build the fifth lane on Hobart’s Southern Outlet, the state government says.

Early plans involved up to 17 properties prompting anger from affected Dynnyrne residents.

But Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Michael Ferguson told parliament on Thursday that the number of properties to be acquired had been scaled back.

“As a result of our substantial efforts, I can confirm that only three full property acquisitions are required, all of which have now been achieved on a voluntary basis through negotiation by agreement with the vendors,” he said.

Traffic backed up along the Southern Outlet, south of Hobart. Photo: Richard Jupe

“There have been no compulsory acquisitions. In fact, we had more people wanting to have the government purchase properties than were needed.

“A further four properties will be subject to some land acquisition in the usual way, which will be partial land only, and that process is well underway.

“Our government is now moving forward with planning for the transit lane as the only real solution to ease traffic congestion on the Southern Outlet, particularly for residents of Kingborough, the Channel and the Huon Valley whose needs were ignored by Labor and the Greens who have blindly opposed this infrastructure.”

Mr Ferguson said additional consultation would be undertaken with property owners on Macquarie Street who would be impacted by the loss of on-street parking for the extra lane that is planned to continue from the Outlet

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