The Queensland Beef Corridors group of councils welcomes the recent media statement from The Honourable Bart Mellish Minister for Transport and Main Roads and Minister for Digital Services.

Central Queensland is set to benefit from development and progressive delivery of $500 million of upgrades to priority road corridors to support Queensland’s beef industry.

Queensland’s beef corridor network stretches across nearly 218,000 square kilometres and runs from east to west across Central Queensland.

This strategic web of roads carries world-class beef product and contributes $1.7 billion to the Australian economy.

Upgrading the beef corridor network will increase productivity across the agriculture and resource industry sectors along with improving safety.

The Queensland Government, in partnership with Australian Government, will work with seven local government mayors and key industry stakeholders on the identification of short, medium and long-term beef road priorities to inform a 10-year Central Queensland Beef Roads Investment Strategy.

This includes the Mayors of Barcaldine, Central Highlands, Gladstone, Isaac and Rockhampton Regional Councils and Banana and Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire Councils, who have been advocating for infrastructure investment to improve the roads forming part of the state’s beef supply chain.

To kick start the initiative, an early works package is being developed with the Miles Government funding contribution, prioritising the following projects:

• Pave and seal sections along Clermont-Alpha Road in Mackay/ Whitsunday and Central West districts
• Pave and seal and widening of floodway along Alpha-Tambo Road in the Central West district
• Pave and seal in sections of the Fitzroy Developmental Road between Bauhinia – Duaringa in the Fitzroy district
• Pave and seal section along May Downs Road in the Mackay / Whitsunday district 

Construction is expected to commence progressively from 2024-25.

These works are in addition to the $107 million early works package announced in November 2023 to kickstart works on the $1 billion Inland Freight Route, also known as the Second Bruce.

The Australian Government has confirmed its funding contribution of $400 million as part of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, and the Queensland Government’s commitment of $100 million to upgrade Queensland Beef Corridors is outlined in the Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program (2023-24 to 2026-27).

Source: Queensland Government