April 16, 2026
South Burnett Regional Council received a petition at its Wednesday meeting from Blackbutt residents frustrated over alleged delays in a project to create a safer war memorial in the town.
The petition, signed by 184 people, was presented to Council during a deputation by Blackbutt RSL Sub-Branch president David Jager at the start of the meeting.
Mr Jager is chairperson of a committee which has developed a proposal for a new memorial to be built near the rail trail in Blackbutt, away from the D’Aguilar Highway where the current monument stands.
He said a detailed proposal had been presented to Councillors and representatives from the Department of Transport and Main Roads in November 2025 after months of community planning.
This had been received favourably and Council voted to lease land to the Sub-Branch for the new monument a month later.
“Since then we have had no progress on the lease but only questions about car parking,” Mr Jager said.
He said a Right To Information request to Council in regards to the lease had been denied.
Mr Jager said Blackbutt needed a new monument because of well-documented safety issues, the disruption to traffic flow and the disruption to commemoration services.
He said it had been suggested that Council would have built a car park at the new location any way to cater for the museum and rail trail, but now the Sub-Branch was being expected to pick up the cost for both a car park and the monument.
He said the “distraction” of the car park issue had left the project “dead in the water” until it was resolved.
Mr Jager said the committee had been unable to apply for grants for the new monument until it had received a letter from Council in regards to the lease of the land.
“The Blackbutt RSL Sub-Branch respectfully asks that the car park issue be resolved by Council alone,” Mr Jager said.
“The shortage of parking in the rail trail precinct is not for our Sub-Branch to solve.”
South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff said she was “disappointed it had come to this”.
“I was of the opinion that this was all progressing,” the Mayor said.
“We will receive the petition and then a report will come back to Council and obviously we will make a decision around what we need to do going forward.
“I am just surprised that it has come to this as I thought we were working as a group, as council and your community, to get this as fast-tracked as we could.
“I’m very sorry that it has to come to a petition.”
The Blackbutt War Memorial, which consists of a stone soldier carved by Lowther & Sons of Ipswich, was unveiled by Nanango Shire chairman John Archibald Lee on April 24, 1920.
If the project for a new monument goes ahead, the existing statue will remain in its current position.
