February 10, 2026
Three South Burnett properties with rates overdue for more than three years were sold by auction in Kingaroy on Tuesday morning.
The properties were located at Hivesville, Memerambi and Inverlaw.
The decision to sell the properties was discussed at the May 2025 general meeting after many attempts to contact the landowners to organise payments.
An amount of more than $11,000 was outstanding on one of the properties.
Councillors have repeatedly urged people who are having difficulties paying their rates to contact Council’s rates department to set up a payment plan.
“Council is always prepared to accept any reasonable arrangement for the settlement of rates,” Mayor Kathy Duff said.
“We don’t want to sell people’s properties. We have a hardship policy in place as well as payment plans.
“We will bend over backwards to help people. We don’t want to sell their properties. It’s the last thing we want to do.”
An Application to Pay Rates by Instalments form (741kb PDF) can be downloaded from Council’s website.
So if these people do not have a home now where do they live?
Maybe the council could use one of the properties to house all the people in the Wondai township free campgrounds. Or get people to start paying a little each week for the upkeep of the grounds and showers.
I am a ratepayer and it’s not a free ride for me. I know things are hard. But are these people really trying to find a better place to stay?
Three properties were sold in Kingaroy by auction. My question is…where did the auction take place (location) and was a public notice applied?
The auction was held in the Reception Room at the Kingaroy Town Hall. By law, there were notices published on the South Burnett Regional Council website, in a newspaper (probably the Courier-Mail) and in the Government Gazette