General News
14 April, 2026
Taking control of traffic priorities
TAKING control away from the Department of Transport and Main Roads over priority transport decision-making for the region, fast-tracking both the Kuranda Range Road and the new bridge construction, and sealing the Ootan Road were among the transport priorities listed at last week’s Mareeba Chamber of Commerce lunch.
Speakers included Regional Development of Australia Tropical North (RDATN) chief executive officer Lainie Poon, Far North Qld Regional Organisation of Councils (FNQROC) chief executive officer Darlene Irvine, Deputy Mayor and chair of the council’s Transport Advisory Committee, Lenore Wyatt, and Member for Cook David Kempton, who wrapped up the event.
Mr Kempton, like the other speakers, focused on agreed priorities which included the Kuranda Range Road, the heavy vehicle Mareeba bypass, the Kuranda Bridge, Ootan Road, and the PDR – which were vital to ensuring regional capacity, growth and resilience for the Mareeba shire.
“This global fuel crisis really shows how vulnerable fuel supply is but also how critically inefficient our road network is,” he said.
“What I was dealing with a decade ago, nothing much has changed. It’s the same issues.
“Our fuel supply has been painful for a long time. And it’s going to get worse, so we’re looking at critical supplied for the future.
“I’d like to say you’d see things like, in Cairns, you’d see all those big fuel tanks that are empty down there, fill the whole lot ... so we’ve always got a 12-month supply.”
He was also going to renew the push for the Kuranda Range Road to become part of the National Highway, as a way of fast-tracking repairs, but to also provide a reliable link to Mareeba, which “could become a national transport hub”.
Mr Kempton said he was “not happy” with the time being taken to complete projects, especially on the range road where, he had been told, it was now going to take another year.
He said he would be taking it up personally with the minister, seeking a detailed work schedule, more information on how long the project was taking and why, and pushing for more information getting out to the public.
He supported an idea raised at the meeting for a dedicated TMR officer employed to oversee the information on its website – which hadn’t been updated since the lifting of the curfews in March – and to ensure all visitors had daily notifications, which were often unavailable to visitors to the area and interstate truck drivers.
Transport priorities for the region should also be made by the region, he continued, referencing the spending on a cassowary by-pass and $40m spent on setting up cameras on the Kuranda Range Road.
“TMR have a plan which is not based on options, and it is not responsive to the needs of the community or the transport industry,” he said.
He had set up the Regional Roads Advisory Committee to act as a conduit for Mareeba stakeholders, as a direct link to the minister.
“I want to ensure that this group ensures that TMR no longer controls the agenda,” he said.
The lunch also learned that the Mareeba Shire oversees almost 280,000kms of roads – 1639 km of unsealed, 665 sealed and 623 state-controlled roads.
Cr Wyatt said oveall, that was higher than the kilometres covered to drive from Mareeba to Sydney (2489 km), or to Brisbane (1735 km), and was closer in number to a drive from Mareeba to Adelaide (3040 km).
She said there were many roads needing attention, and council was securing funding assistance to provide key upgrades that were not just repairing, as was normally the case, but making the roads better than before and not just “groundhog day” every time they flooded.
