By Sonia Isaacs
BEERBURRUM residents have called for clearer communication, stronger planning commitments and urgent upgrades to basic amenities amid major rail duplication works, at a packed community forum held at the Beerburrum School of Arts Hall on Friday, April 24.
About 70 people attended the meeting, a significant turnout for a town of just over 900 residents highlighting growing community concern about the Beerburrum to Nambour (B2N) rail duplication project and its wider local impacts.
Committee representative Liliana Molina said the level of engagement reflected how deeply residents are feeling the changes.
“It shows just how much our local residents want to know about the development that’s happening in our area,” she said.
While Member for Glass House Andrew Powell and Division 1 Councillor Jenny Broderick attended to take questions, many residents indicated they felt blindsided by the scale and speed of change.
Both faced pointed questioning on road safety, vegetation clearing, amenities and the future character of the town.
Residents also expressed disappointment that representatives from Transport and Main Roads B2N project team declined an invitation, citing existing communication channels.
Ms Molina said many concerns could have been addressed directly. “We would have preferred for them to be there, because lots of the questions that the residents had could probably have been answered straight away,” she said.
A key concern was extensive vegetation clearing along Steve Irwin Way at the town’s entrance, with residents saying the scale of works had exceeded expectations. “We’ve all known for a while that this development is happening, but the extent of the impact has probably been underestimated by residents,” Ms Molina said.
Beyond visual amenity, residents raised ongoing concerns about noise, increased traffic, parking pressure around the post office and café precinct, and a long-standing lack of public toilets.
Community members also criticised limited access to information, with the B2N project’s local hub open only during business hours.
“There’s still that lack of connection to actually meeting residents’ needs on how they receive that information,” Ms Molina said. Residents also raised concerns about hooning activity, with reports of large car gatherings, and called for urgent attention to deteriorating roads including Beerburrum–Woodford Road.
Mr Powell acknowledged the emotional impact of the works on the town’s entry, saying the changes were confronting.
“When you actually see the work start, and particularly in a community like Beerburrum, and see the entrance of your town completely and utterly changed – it is confronting,” he said. “I’m not going to pretend it’s otherwise.”
He said although the Beerburrum to Nambour rail duplication had been in planning for decades, residents were only now seeing its physical footprint.
He outlined the scale of the works, explaining in greater detail the new corridor requirements.
“Unlike the current rail corridor, the new corridor is, at a minimum, going to be 50 metres wide,” he said. “We clear for two lines and there is a gap between them.
We also clear for a maintenance road along one side of the track, a maintenance road along the other side of the track… so that 50 metre wide corridor will remain clear.”
The meeting also heard concerns about road safety, as well as confusion around changing traffic conditions linked to the upgrade.
Amenity issues remained central, particularly public toilets. Ms Broderick linked future provision to broader tourism planning, including the Seven Peaks Trail. “We’ve asked the team to incorporate toilets at the trailhead as part of that,” she said.