Family told to make way for highway project hours after moving in to new home
Hours after picking up the keys to his newly-built family home, Anil Konda was informed that his whole property would be used in upgrades to Queensland’s Bruce Highway.
After putting down an initial deposit on the land in Griffin, in Brisbane’s north, Mr Konda relocated his young family of four to Queensland, and they found a rental to stay in, a new school for the kids, and endured 11 months of building delays before stepping into their new home.
But their good news was short-lived, with the state government’s Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) sending an email requesting Mr Konda to call them for more information on the “future land requirement” before calling him that afternoon.
"When I asked specific details like, 'How is it impacted? Am I going to lose a certain amount of land?', they told me like it's going to be the entire thing," he told the ABC.
"The entire house has to be taken out."
Mr Konda said the family wanted to see the construction of their new home in person since it was their first house, and that even if they can live in their home for the next few years, they know it will be taken away.
“They just took away the joy of our new home,” he said.
"We don't have the belongingness (sic)."
But Mr Konda’s family isn’t alone.
Their home is part of the relatively new Aspire development, where there are still vacant lots, houses in the midst of construction, and residents who have mostly moved in within the past few months.
A TMR spokesperson confirmed that the owners of 24 residential lots have been contacted about the plans.
Charmaine and James Jackson are owners of another of the affected blocks of land, which they purchased and built their dream home on in 2021, the same year they had their second child.
"It was eight days after he was born we went to the office to pick out our tile colours, our paint and everything like that," Mrs Jackson said.
With their youngest just turning one, they had hopes of staying in the home until both boys had left school.
"I just need an explanation," Mr Jackson said.
"How could this have happened where you've allowed people so freshly to have built new houses only to tell them that they're going to be torn down in the middle of a housing crisis."
After receiving the email, Mr Jackson contacted TMR to ask why the title was allowed to be registered.
"They said when Aspire put in the planning application we didn't have planning up-to-date at that time to confirm any impacts," he said.
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the highway project was still in its very early planning stages, and that more specific numbers of residents who will be impacted will be determined as planning progresses.
"If we do require someone's property, we get independent evaluations and market rates, so that we make sure that people who are impacted in the end, that they are looked after and that they get fair value and compensation,” he said.
"It's never a good process and of course these are relatively recent approvals by the local governments involved, so I can appreciate why they would feel aggrieved by the process."
Image: ABC News (Facebook)