D-Day Looms For Memerambi

May 26, 2015

The fate of the failed Memerambi Estate should finally be known next week.

The South Burnett Regional Council will table a report at next Wednesday’s Council meeting about the outcome of an offer made to Memerambi property owners to declare the Estate a “benefitted area”.

If most owners agree to the arrangement, Council will borrow $2.1 million from Queensland Treasury to build missing roads and other key infrastructure so owners can occupy their houses.

Owners would then pay back their share of the infrastructure costs – estimated at between $25,000 and $30,000 per lot – either in a lump sum or over an extended period of time as an addition to their normal rates bill.

One group of owners, who have mounted several court actions since the estate’s developer went into liquidation in August 2013, were sent an offer which was conditional on them agreeing to waive any future legal actions against the Council.

The remaining owners, who have not been involved in court proceedings, were sent a letter simply outlining the Council’s proposal.

Both groups were given a deadline of March 31 to respond.

The Council included borrowings to rectify the Estate in its 2014-2015 Budget.

But at the Council’s April 1 meeting, Councillors voted not to draw down the pre-approved loan funds until the outcome of the owners’ response to the offer had been determined.

The Council has until June 30 to draw down the loan.

Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said he was unsure which way the matter would go.

“I do know that some councillors have reservations about this matter,” he said.

“They’re worried that if any owners defaulted on this arrangement, Council could wind up owning properties on the Estate.

“We’d then have to resell them to recover each property’s share of the infrastructure cost plus outstanding rates, which would probably be a figure of between $30,000 to $40,000.”

But he said it had been put to him by other people that if any owner defaulted, it should be possible to resell an empty block in what would then be a fully serviced estate, since this would be close to half the price of an equivalent block in Kingaroy.

And it would be even easier to sell a block with a largely completed house on it for that figure.

The issue is likely to come to a vote if the margin between owners who have agreed to the offer and owners who have rejected it is narrow.

If the Council votes not to proceed, the Estate’s property owners would then need to pay for the missing infrastructure themselves if they wished to move into their houses, or walk away from their investment entirely.

Related articles:

• Estate’s Fate Should Be Known Soon
• Councillors Query $3m Loan
• Memerambi Deadline Drawing Close
• Council Plugs Memerambi ‘Hole’
• Delays Anger Owners
• Memerambi Owners Offered A Way Out
• Memerambi Solution Inches Closer
• Council Puts An End To Historical Sub-Divisions
• Court Clears Way For Memerambi Solution
• TV Ambush ‘Un-Australian’
• Which Way Now For Memerambi?
• Drainage Problems ‘May Be Solved’
• Memerambi Homes ‘Not For Refugees’

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Vandalism At Memerambi Estate

Vandals Smash Windows

Comment by Dafyd Martindale

During the years Memerambi Estate has remained uninhabited it has mostly managed to avoid serious vandalism problems.

But on Saturday afternoon, police apprehended three local boys – two aged 13 and one aged 12 – they allege were smashing windows in several of the  properties. The boys were taken back to their homes and their parents were informed.

southburnett.com.au visited the Estate today and can confirm at least five properties have smashed windows.

It has also been rumoured that squatters have been seen from time to time camping overnight in some of the unlocked buildings on the Estate.

Some houses we saw today appear to show signs of recent habitation, strewn with empty soft drink cans and food wrappers.

The Estate has been an eyesore ever since work on it ceased in 2012.

It is located immediately next to the Bunya Highway, one of our region’s main traffic arteries.

While Council workers have periodically mowed the highway frontage and a few property owners appear to have maintained their properties, the interior of the Estate is now densely overgrown and some of the houses are starting to look dilapidated.

The result? This Estate is a silent but powerfully negative advertisement for our region.

Normalising it would do a lot of good – not just for long-suffering property owners caught up in the expensive aftermath of a failed sub-division development, but for our region as a whole.

  Council, Memerambi