The Fraser Coast town of Bauple is being faced with a decision which locals say will send the farming community back to the 1970's, with the state government revealing plans to create a bypass around the area as part of the long-awaited Bruce Highway upgrades.
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With plans to bypass the town of Tiaro when travelling along the Bruce Highway between Gympie and Maryborough, Bauple residents say they were shocked to learn that their town would be included in the the proposed bypass zone, despite originally being assured that Bauple would not be impacted by the upgrades.
The Bauple Progress Association's Bypass Subcommittee have voiced their concerns with the proposal, saying they support the need for the bypass but do not agree with Transport and Main Roads (TMR) design of the Bauple Service Road, which will run through three flood zones, although the current Bruce Highway was built in a higher area in 1976 for that reason.
The group said the plan for the service road will threaten both the community's safety and future, and despite developing ideas and plans for safer and more sensible alternatives to the bypass, they have so far been dismissed by TMR and Fraser Coast Regional Council.
Bauple farmers Lynne and Ron Stratford, who have lived in the area for 50 and 70 years respectively, said they were very concerned with thought of the service road being built across a flood zone.
"The whole idea of this Tiaro bypass, we were led to believe, was safety, flood immunity and economic growth," Ms Stratford said.
"On the 16th of June, we went to an information session provided by the Bauple progress Association where they invited the TMR representative in Bundaberg to come and give us some ideas on what was going to happen, and when he stood up and told everybody what they had planned, there was an audible gasp in the hall.
"There was a lot of frustration and hostility as a result of that because everybody got such a shock to think that they were going to do this to our community."
The couple said they were also worried about how the proposed bypass would impact the various agricultural industries in the area, considering the need for heavy machinery to travel along the route.
"Why couldn't they just give us direct access onto the highway because this is an agricultural area?" Ms Stratford said.
"We've got cane farms, ginger and macadamia growers, fruit and veggie growers, and logging. We've got cattle properties and people with other different kinds of livestock.
"There's a lot of heavy machinery that travels on this road that and we just cannot understand why main roads won't listen to us because we've been telling them that this is just not going to work.
"They're compromising Bauple residents' safety in what they're proposing, and we're just wanting them to listen to us, come to the party, have a meeting with us, do some consultation, not just telling us what's going to happen."
Macadamia farmers Yolande and Marc Bromet agreed that safety was paramount to the committee's battle, despite TMR's claims that the town's aversion to the proposal was a matter of convenience.
"Blind Freddie can see the draft design just lacks common sense," Mr Bromet said.
"We've got a better, cheaper, safer option for a highway, so why wouldn't they listen and why wouldn't they consider it?" Ms Bromet said.
"We seem to have been roadblocked at every angle.
"This committee is all about representing our town and making sure that we have a future and something that's safe for this generation, and the next."
Dani-Lee Kershaw said that she was worried for both her family and her business, mentioning the economic impact that the proposal would have on the town and people wanting to move to the area.
"At a public meeting on Wednesday a lady that has recently moved to the area said, unequivocally, if she had known that this entrance to the bypass was happening as it is, she would not have moved here," Ms Kershaw said.
"That just shows how this is going to impact future property sales and future population growth."
Bauple local Marianne Pink said emergency services had also raised their concerns over the proposal, saying that the redirection of the road would potentially add 12 to 15 minutes onto their trip when attending to emergencies in the area.
Queensland Country Life has reached out to the Department of Main Roads and Transport for comment, to be included in a full report later this week.
