by Julian Lehnert, South Burnett Today
Year after year, for over two decades, Kingaroy couple Ray and Ingeborg Fechner have campaigned the South Burnett Regional Council to have the access lane to their house – the only dirt road in the town’s CBD – sealed.
Every time, the answer comes back the same: ‘Try again next year.’
Mr and Ms Fechner live on Freemans Lane, wedged between Edward and King Streets in Kingaroy’s ‘old town’ – a place the couple have called home for the past 51 years.
For the Fechners and several of their neighbours, the only way to access their properties is through Freemans Lane – an unsealed gravel road with picturesque views of the Kingaroy peanut silos just a few hundred metres away.
Life on Kingaroy’s only gravel road does not come easy for the elderly couple: their property is caked in dust during the summer and drowning in mud during the wet season; all throughout, they have to dodge ankle-deep potholes on their drives into town.
“When it rains there’s always water sitting there,” Ray Fechner said, pointing to the gravel road just outside his gate.
Around 20 years ago, the Fechners had enough, and began petitioning the South Burnett Regional Council for help, requesting they seal or otherwise upgrade the lane.
However, due to budgetary constraints, the couple’s plea has been knocked back year after year.
“Ray goes and sees the councillors and they’ll say ‘oh, you know, we can’t afford it this budget – we’ll see about it next time.’” Ms Fechner explained.
“Council obviously know about it, but nothing’s being done. It’s never changed,” her husband added.
All in all, the Fechners’ part of Freemans Lane services 19 properties according to official council maps, with several of those sharing the couple’s situation of having the only or main access to their house situated along the gravel road.
Further along toward the Bunya Highway, five more properties are serviced by the lane, with no driveways backing into it.
Lastly, the section of Freemans Lane closest to Haly Street, which houses another 20 properties, is the only part of the street to be bitumened, due to the presence of the Kingaroy Fire Station on the corner of Kent and Edward Street.
Freemans Lane, like all other streets within the main Kingaroy township, is declared a ‘Priority Infrastructure Area’ by council on its official maps.
The Fechners say they understand Freemans Lane is part of Kingaroy’s older districts, and that council’s focus may lie elsewhere at present, but they are nevertheless frustrated with the local government’s constant lack of funds.
A spokesperson for the South Burnett Regional Council has given a statement on the fate of Freemans Lane, confirming a large backlog of road upgrade requests.
“Council currently has requests in the order of $100 million in upgrades, which includes requests for bitumen sealing [of] unsealed roads such as Freemans Lane,” they said.
“In fact, Council’s current unsealed road network in our region is 1,500km and Freemans Lane is just one of those roads.”
The council spokesperson stated that, despite the Fechners’ two decade-long campaign, their struggle is not even considered in the local government’s top 50 per cent of priorities.
“Council’s project list for [road] upgrades currently consists of 188 projects and Freemans Lane is ranked at 106,” they explained.
“To upgrade the unsealed section of Freemans Lane to sealed standard would cost in the order of $200,000.”
According to council, the Freemans Lane upgrade was officially added to the list of ‘proposed capital upgrades’ in 2020, to be taken into consideration for each subsequent budget round.
“Council has a significant amount of assets to maintain and our priority is renewal and restoration of existing assets, which has a significant impact on the overall available budget,” the SBRC spokesperson said.