More than 100 affordable and social homes will be delivered as Bundaberg Regional Council and Regional Housing Limited partner to take real action against the housing crisis.
The two organisations have been collaborating on the housing project plans – which would ease the region’s current housing shortage – with Council resolving in its 27 May Ordinary Meeting to gift the land to Regional Housing for the delivery of subsidised affordable housing.
The Council land, known as the Gympie Estate, is an historical residential subdivision created by the State in 1888, well over a century ago.
It is bounded by Telegraph Road, the Ring Road, FE Walker Street and Mellifont Street and, while it is a significant parcel of land, not all parts of the site are capable of being developed.
Mayor Blackburn said the decision was a direct outcome of Council’s Bundaberg Local Housing Action Plan.
“While housing is not the responsibility of Local Government, we are committed to advocating strongly on behalf of our community,” Mayor Blackburn said.
“We welcome the State Government’s creation of a $2 billion infrastructure fund and we would love to see a fair portion of those funds funnelled into the Bundaberg Region to meet the growing demand for safe and secure accommodation in our region.
“Through our Housing Action Plan Council has been identifying excess council land that can be gifted to non-profit housing providers as our contribution to helping these projects happen as quickly as possible.”
Mayor Blackburn said the Gympie Estate was just one such example and for many months Council had been negotiating the gifting of the land to support Regional Housing to make its affordable and social housing project a reality.
“This land has long been identified as ideal for residential development and we believe we shouldn’t allow it to continue to sit vacant for another hundred years while our community has a significant need for additional and affordable housing.
“We will now work with Regional Housing to co-design a master plan for this large parcel of land which would see the delivery of in excess of 100 homes and, in the long term, the dedication of a significant area currently zoned residential into open space.
“The land is ideally located near schools, the new Kepnock Town Centre, parks and major transport infrastructure.
“It is currently zoned low density residential and is well-placed to connect to existing sewer and water infrastructure.”
Under the agreement, Regional Housing will need to have commenced the project within two years from the transfer of the land and be completed within five years.
Regional Housing would also be responsible for all costs associated with the works to deliver the development.
Regional Housing Business Development Manager Kris Robinson welcomed the Council decision which would allow the project to move forward.
“Today marks an important step forward in ensuring that more people in our region have access to secure, affordable and supported housing,” Mr Robinson said.
“We know the pressures many are facing, and we are proud to be working in partnership with a progressive council to deliver a project that will make a real difference in people’s lives.
“Our region’s rental market remains tight and with that comes a high demand for affordable accommodation, which is why this project is so crucial.
“We are not just building homes – we are building stability, opportunity, and resilience for the future.
“We look forward to working closely with Bundaberg Regional Council, the community, and other key stakeholders to ensure this project delivers meaningful outcomes”.
Following the decision, Council’s CEO has been authorised to enter into a Deed of Gift with Regional Housing Limited for the transfer of the land.
Furthermore, Council resolved that Council and Regional Housing Limited incorporate into the Deed of Gift a provision to limit the social housing component of the development to not more than 25% of the total project.
Mayor Blackburn said, while more social housing was critical for the region, the focus of this project was on affordable housing.
“Council will be collaborating with Regional Housing on the master planning which will also be made available for public consultation before coming back before Council for a final decision.
“The intent of this proposal is to see a mix of housing types with a limited percentage of social housing and a focus on affordable housing.
“The housing will be subsidised through the gift of land which removes a major cost to Regional Housing in the delivery of houses for residents currently unable to become homeowners.
“This is the most significant outcome to come out of our Housing Action Plan to date and we are so pleased to be partnering with Regional Housing to deliver a much-needed increase in the provision of affordable housing in Bundaberg.”
Whilst I applaud BRC’s concern for the need for more affordable housing, as the Mayor stated “housing is not the responsibility of Local Government” . Gympie Estate is a natural bushland area adjoining part of Baldwin Swamp Environmental Park. This land should be gifted to the people of Bundaberg as an extension of Baldwin Swamp. This is a great opportunity to show ratepayers that BRC will protect animals such as bandicoots an, echnidas, etc. that will be run over by cars or killed by dogs and cats once the roads and houses are built. People and animals need open space, so in this case, a ” bigger” Baldwin Swamp Environmental Park is better “.
How do you find out about this estate?. Looking for my grandkids. Maybe the only way they can get into owning a home
There’s a quite a number of vacant blocks of land all over town that are not visibly for-sale anywhere.
Like “47 Walker Street” – 1 side of this has no house on it anymore & that house was knocked down along time ago.
Corner of Woondooma & Burum street
22 Walla Street it usto have 2 homes on it
Corner of Targo & Bus street it looks like a separate piece of land.
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There’s many more all over town.
I know some of them might be part of the property next door but if it looks like it could be big enough to build a home or appartments maybe it can be sub divided & sold off? A dedicated effort to optimize land usage could be fruitful in boosting housing numbers.
telegraph road, renowned for rocks and big ones at that, plenty of snakes and when it rained, real rain, it was an area to avoid. There was heaps of water. I heard that this is where Eric Cullen learnt to swim, as did many others.
I have lived here at East Bundaberg,now for 14 years, walk this area nearly everyday and I am in ore of the wildlife, what will happen to them. This is the only green space left in Bundaberg, there will be nothing left for our grandchildren to walk through anymore. The council has already built a dump yard on that land that is a disgrace. Most Towns are trying to plant and put in green areas, here we cut it down and never replace. It is zoned for 256 houses on Telegraph Rd, across the road from St Lukes another development, where will all the water run off from this housing flow to, flood time its up to Olsen St, with all this development will it be up to the Ring Road.
We are all aware of the shortage of housing in Bundaberg, however what we are also short of is green space and as a parcel of remnant scrub it should not be developed as that will any impact on the already shrinking Baldwin swamp environmental park which is under attack from run-off from surrounding developments and needs all the help it can get.
The cost for regional development to prepare this land for housing will be much larger due to the volcanic rocks in the area which are known to be immobile and widespread.
My kids love seeing all the wild life in here, walking through counting how many kookaburras, kangaroos and lorikeets we may see each time, this isn’t the place to develop.
The amount of green spaces through the Sunny coast is so beautiful, we have very little, why take this away?!
There is another massive development planned for for just down the road, off telegraph rd where all the farming is, this is going to destroy the area.
I understand there is a need for housing but this isn’t the area for it. There are many houses at affordable prices in Gladstone, if people are that desperate maybe they need to consider other locations to live.
We all realise that there is a housing crisis across Australia and Bundaberg is no exception. It is fabulous for the building industry and all the trades attached to new building development to be booming and that people who are struggling to make ends meet can be provided with affordable housing, however, there does not seem to be any forward infrastructure planning by the council to cope with the increased population that comes with added housing. Currently the travel time from the coastal communities to Bundaberg during peak times is unacceptable and Bargara Road, FE Walker, Elliott Heads are backed up substantially causing significant increased travel times. Further coastal development and also a possible Telegraph Road social housing estate is only going to add to traffic congestion and potential road accidents due to impatient drivers. Can I ask council to please release their plans for the new
/ widened / dual carriage way roads that are going to built to handle the increasing traffic demands or are you planning to make the existing heavily trafficked roads toll roads to help bring down the council debt?
Green space & Wild life can be protected by us building up not out. I’m not saying 50 story sky scrapers but if we had more 3 – 6 story apparent blocks instead of 1 story & more shopping that is not just 1 story or 1 story with a car park. Multi story car parks also would help.
We are now also advanced enough to put green space in developed cities. We can enclose areas & make them predestine to we can put greenspace anywhere we want. We could even have huge walk areas like Darling Square.
This would give us the space necessary to handle the growth. Bundaberg’s town water supply is rated at 330,000 people without touching either DAM. If done right we can keep the green space & even add to it. Planning for the growth of the town to continue is a good idea. Don’t say way we won’t get there the towns population has increased by 5x in the last 30 years or so by the time I’m retirement age it will be 300,000 easily.
Our kids are not going to be able to live here. People from Capital cities that can afford to buy $700,000+ homes are moving here. They can’t afford the capitals but they can buy in a city like Bundaberg or Hervey Bay & out compete just about anyone who did live here.
Bundaberg & Hervey Bay kids should move to Gladstone it is the closest City with the largest population that is not experiencing rapid post COVID growth. Gladstone has opportunity & support features. Especially if you have not been able to get work in Bundaberg or HerveyBay. Gladstone has a vastly different economy.
Other somewhat reasonable options are Maryborough or Gympie.
With interest rates now dropping expect property prices & rents to start going up at a faster rate again with even more people moving from larger cities to our region. It’s likely that it won’t stop until we are a substantially more expensive place to live.
P.M.i have lived in this area for 22years,and we were told that this land was gifted to the council on condition that it was never to be built on.This is part of Baldwin swomp.Were else close to town that we can go and enjoy the wildlife .please leave it alone,there is so much the children can learn about animals habitat an foliage .
As we have said before in dozens of letters over the years to the various iterations of this Council any growing City needs green space and it is well known by everyone including developers how difficult this site would be to put homes on ,that is why the area was never developed.
Sadly repeated councils fail to hold any value for the importance of environment particularly in this increasingly busy and stressful world.
As past president Maureen Schmidt has said it is not the job of local government to find housing, it is however the job of local governments to care for the environment that their constituents and their children live in. The rate payers of Bundaberg a crying out for a council that has a Moral Compass the future this council creates today with its decisions will color what this city will look like tomorrow.
Do we care about the homeless we certainly do because most people who care about the environment do care about other things whilst those who just want a quick buck care very much less about the suffering of those less fortunate than the themselves you are paid the big bucks in council to make intelligent decisions why don’t you start making them