FOUR years into my time with Glasshouse Country and Maleny News and I’m struck not just by how the hinterland keeps changing, but by the scale of what’s coming next.
This has been driven home more recently with the announcement of the Wave rail project and the impact on Beerwah, specifically the Co-Op and the prospect of a butt-ugly four storey car park towering over Simpson Street.
And then further by the amount of clearing that has occurred across Beerburrum and Glass House Mountains as part of the B2N rail project.
As we report this week some 64 hectares of trees are being cleared to realign and add a second track that will ultimately lift capacity and services for the north coast.
The B2N project has been talked about for almost bang on 25 years.
That’s a lot of talk and in fact it was only just before I started here that real money was put on the table for the project.
Since then there’s been not much more to see, until now.
It’s a bit like Ernest Hemingway describing his spiral into bankruptcy: “gradually, then suddenly.”
Driving along Steve Irwin Way and into either Beerburrum or Glass House Mountains, especially along Barrs Rd, is a completely different landscape to a month ago.
The entrance to Beerburrum, once a wall of native trees is now a browned out wasteland.
While off Barrs Rd at Glass House they could be building an airstrip for an A380.
For locals this is a confronting scene. We’re not talking about NIMBYs but people who love the area for its still village-like feel that remains so close to the coast and Brisbane.
But these projects – the B2N and Wave – are freight trains that aren’t stopping for anybody.
Anyone travelling by train knows the frustration of having to stop regularly at stations while another service passes by.
While anyone travelling by car on the Bruce knows the frustration of sitting in the middle lane of a car park in a 110km zone.
And in the midst of a booming population, something has to give.
Check out our story on p4-5 this week as well as our drone footage on Facebook to see the scale of change currently underway.
And while the shock of this sudden change is real, it also underlines the scale of investment finally coming into the hinterland.
These are long-promised projects that will reshape how we move for decades to come.
Christmas cheer
On a much breezier note this week’s edition is packed with Christmas festivities.
From all the best Christmas lights in the Hinterland and Aura (p18) to the season’s best socials (p14-17), Christmas messages from our local businesses and pollies (p14-18), two pages of puzzles (p40-41) and Christmas recipes (p28)… it’s never too much!
We’ve got one more edition after which this freight train will be pulling in at the station for a couple of weeks.
