Housing boom headed for Bundaberg with new funding to enable 10,000 homes

Six projects in Queensland’s sugar city have been granted funding by the state to prepare land for thousands of new homes. 

Waste management, stormwater drainage and roads: Three things that are needed to build new homes. On Monday, 7 July, Bundaberg was granted $11 million by the Queensland state government for just that, as the city embarks on an ambitious plan for home-building. 

Queensland’s Residential Activation Fund, which will deliver $1 billion in grants according to the latest state budget, has singled out six projects in the Bundaberg area to fast-track the infrastructure needed to get homes on the ground. 

The biggest cash injection will go towards inlet works for the Millbank Wastewater Treatment Plant, with the government stumping up $7.7 million of the overall $9.6 million cost of this project.  

The facility is crucial to the Bundaberg Regional Council’s Branyan Local Area Plan, which earmarks Branyan, in the city’s south-west, for substantial housing development. 

The government funding also includes $1.5 million for the design of the Childers Wastewater Treatment Plant, $840,000 for water and sewerage infrastructure for the Elliott Heads Growth Precinct, $520,000 for sewerage infrastructure in the Ashfield Growth Precinct, $176,000 for stormwater infrastructure on Kellys Road, and $240,000 for an intersection upgrade in Coral Cove. 

The six projects that received funding are, all together, set to enable the construction of 10,068 new homes across the Bundaberg region, according to the city council. 

The first homes to break ground will be in Elliott Heads and Ashfield, with both infrastructure projects now set to be finished within a year, so construction on homes may begin in 2026-27. 

The Queensland government has committed to devoting at least 50% of the funding from the Residential Activation Fund to the state’s regional and remote areas, helping to improve the capacity to deliver housing in regions like Bundaberg. 

Bundaberg regional council mayor Helen Blackburn said the funding would be “vital to addressing housing challenges in our community while supporting local jobs and economic development”. 

“This investment of nearly $11 million for six significant projects will allow us to deliver and plan for critical infrastructure for our essential services from water and wastewater to roads and stormwater management,” she added. 

Deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie said this was the first funding announcement in Queensland’s “Residential Activation Fund roadshow,” which will see Mr Bleijie travel to other communities in the state delivering further funding news in the coming weeks. 

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