June 14, 2023
by Anne Miller
What’s in this week’s State Budget for the South Burnett? Not a lot of anything new, although the announcement of funding to start the resealing of the Bunya Mountains Road will be greeted with relief by local residents and tourism operators.
The State Government has budgeted $936,000 for Section 1 and $3.35 million for Section 2 to be spent on the project during 2023-24.
All up, Queensland Transport believes the complete job will cost $8.664 million, with more money pencilled in to be spent during 2024-25 and 2025-2027.
Most of the other roads funding for the South Burnett comes from joint Federal / State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, with the Federal Government contributing the majority of the cash.
There’s money set aside for Stanwell’s Wind Farm project near Kingaroy, the battery storage project at Tarong and the recently started Wambo Wind Farm, near the existing Coopers Gap project.
Rural firefighters in the Linville / Moore area will be pleased that $700,000 has been allocated towards their fire station.
And a $5.5 million upgrade to visitor facilities at the Bunya Mountains National Park was also announced, with $1 million to be spent in 2023-24.
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South Burnett Region
- Stanwell Corporation – Total capital expenditure planned for 2023-24 is $857.5 million. Highlights include:
● $221.2 million for the Wambo Wind Farm
● $200.0 million for the 500MW Tarong West Wind Farm near Kingaroy (formerly known as Iron Leaf)
● $183.2 million (out of a $269.1 million total spend) for the Southern Renewable Energy Zone 150MW battery project at Tarong Power Station
● $77.2 million to replace and refurbish existing infrastructure at Tarong Power Station, including refurbishment of the cooling tower
- Kilkivan Substation Replacement – $10.8 million (out of a $33.7 million total spend) to continue substation refurbishment works to improve network performance.
- Meandu Mine – $29.5 million to replace and refurbish handling equipment and infrastructure.
- Bunya Mountains National Park – $1 million (out of a $5.5 million total spend) to upgrade visitor infrastructure.
- Moore Linville Rural Fire Brigade Station – $700,000 for upgrade.
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Schools
- Barambah Environmental Education Centre – $222,000 to extend Challenge Course
- Cherbourg State School – $152,000 for playground and tuckshop upgrades
- Murgon State High School – $261,000 for playground and tuckshop upgrades
- Wondai P-9 – $134,000 for Outdoor Learning Centre
- Yarraman P-10 – $650,000 to refurbish Block B
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Roadworks
Budgeted local roadworks for 2023-24:
- Bunya Highway (Dalby-Kingaroy) – Joint Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement (DRFA) reconstruction works – $651,000 ($163,000 State / $488,000 Commonwealth)
- Burnett Highway (Nanango-Goomeri) – DRFA reconstruction – $670,503 ($168,670 / $503,000)
- Burnett Highway (Nanango-Goomeri) – DRFA betterment works – $1.115 million ($557,000 / $557,000)
- Byee Road – DRFA reconstruction – $818,000 ($204,000 / $613,000)
- D’Aguilar Highway – Improve safety from Alexander Lane (Nanango) to Bunya Highway – $4 million (out of a total spend of $23.9 million with $11.4 million already spent)
- D’Aguilar Highway – Widen and strengthen pavement from Bushnell Road (Nanango) to Homley Road – $4.5 million (out of a total spend of $6.5 million with $619,000 already spent)
- Maidenwell-Bunya Mountains Road (Section 1) – upgrade unsealed road to sealed standard – $936,000 (out of a total spend of $1.964 million)
- Maidenwell-Bunya Mountains Road (Section 2) – upgrade unsealed road to sealed standard – $3.35 million (out of a total spend of $6.7 million)
- Proston-Boondooma Road – DRFA floodway betterment – $798,000 ($399,000 State / $798,000 Commonwealth)
- Home Creek Loop Road (Cushnie) – Replace timber bridge – $40,000 (out of a total spend of $730,000 funded by the Federal Government’s Bridges Renewal Program: $584,000 Commonwealth / $146,000 South Burnett Regional Council)
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Social Housing
Across the Wide Bay region (which includes the South Burnett):
- Construct social housing – $ 25.47 million
- Upgrade existing social housing – $4.431 million
- Buy land for social housing – $2 million
- Buy existing properties – $3.825 million
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Borumba Dam
- $183.7 million (out of a $14.159 billion total spend) for detailed design and exploratory works for the Borumba Pumped Hydro Project.
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Toowoomba Pipeline
- $13.4 million to construct the Toowoomba to Warwick Pipeline to provide a drought contingency for Warwick and surrounding communities and a permanent water supply to
Cambooya, Greenmount, Nobby and Clifton.
- $5.3 million for the Toowoomba Regional Council to undertake construction of water treatment and supply works for Cambooya, Greenmount, Nobby and Clifton.
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Statewide Initiatives
- Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme – $70.3 million has been allocated over four years to increase assistance to regional patients.
- Water & Sewage Projects – $28 million as part of the $70.0 million Building our Regions program (Round 6) to assist water service providers to deliver water and sewerage projects that create regional and economic development opportunities.
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