Independently Owned, Locally Grown, Community Loved
The Burdekin could be among the regional communities to benefit from a Coalition pledge aimed at unlocking thousands of new homes across rural Australia. Photo: alamy.
The Burdekin could be among the regional communities to benefit from a Coalition pledge aimed at unlocking thousands of new homes across rural Australia.
The Coalition has committed $1.5 billion of its proposed $5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund specifically to regional, rural and remote Australia.
The fund would pay for foundational infrastructure like roads, water and sewerage needed to support development, with the Coalition saying its broader $5 billion commitment could unlock up to 400,000 homes nationally.
Federal Member for Dawson Andrew Willcox said regional communities needed greater support to accommodate growth.
“The regions are doing the heavy lifting for the Australian economy. We should not be told to grow, and then left to work out how to pay for that growth ourselves,” Mr Willcox said.
“We need houses, but we also need the roads, water, sewerage and other infrastructure that makes those houses possible.”
The pledge comes as the Burdekin continues to grapple with a shortage of housing and development-ready land.
Burdekin Shire Council has already identified infrastructure as a major barrier to housing growth, lodging a $53 million application through the Queensland Government's Residential Activation Fund to unlock about 1,000 residential lots in Ayr.
The proposed project would deliver trunk infrastructure to growth areas around Craig Street, Chippendale Street and Beach Road, including roads, water and sewerage.
Council is currently awaiting the outcome of its Round 2 RAF application, having previously secured more than $500,000 through the fund's first round for planning, hydraulic modelling and detailed infrastructure design.
While the Coalition has not yet outlined how its regional allocation would be distributed, Mr Willcox said investment in housing infrastructure would ultimately determine whether regional communities could continue to grow.
“If a nurse, teacher, tradesperson or young family cannot find an affordable place to live in Dawson, eventually they will look somewhere else,” he said.
“Businesses cannot expand if they cannot attract workers. Industries cannot grow if workers have nowhere to live.”
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