Stolen gates could have spelt disaster on Bruce Highway

Geoff Anderson, Riverview, said his property borders the Bruce Highway and the gates came out near the historical village near the Calliope River bridge.

Mr Anderson, who has a job off property, was coming back from work along the highway this week when he noticed there were no gates from his paddock that leads onto the highway.

He said thieves had stolen the four galvanised steel gates including the hinges that were only a year old and which could cost as much as $1000 to replace.

"It's just lucky that I took the cattle out (of that paddock) about a fortnight ago to draft them up to take the weaners off and I haven't put them back in," he said.

"I thought 'gee if they had've been there, they would've all ended up out on the highway, the Bruce Highway."

Mr Anderson said the worse case scenario could have been that someone was killed in an accident as a result of cattle on the road.

He said he would contact police, but he also wanted to let others know what thieves were doing in the area and to keep an eye out for any suspicious behaviour.

"(I just wanted people to know) things are happening cause you can get into strife if your cattle are out on the road...and it's not because of your bad management, it's because other people have got no sense," he said.

"If it was an old dirt road, you wouldn't mind, but it's the Bruce Highway between Rocky and Brisbane, there's a lot of traffic on it."

Mr Anderson said he had not had any other problems with theft lately although someone had stolen about 40 plus star pickets six years ago after he had put in three kilometres of new highway fencing.

He said not only did the thieves take his gates, they also took his biosecurity sign with his phone number on it.