When Teagan Lind and her family built their home in the Harmony estate in Queensland in 2019, a highway link road was a big selling point. 

“My husband is regularly driving to and from Brisbane and having that road open would cut a substantial amount of time off his trip,” Ms Lind said. 

The $3 billion dollar estate, now home to 6,500 residents, runs alongside the Bruce Highway at Palmview, on the Sunshine Coast.

But for nearly five years, residents have had no choice but to take the long way around.

“It’s a good 15 to 20 minute drive to get to the highway,” Ms Lind said.

“The community has absolutely boomed since COVID and the amount of houses has just increased ten-fold but the developers have not kept up with all of the infrastructure promises.

The state government initially gave developer AVID Property Group a deadline of mid-2022 to complete the highway connection. 

The deadline has been extended several times.

AVID’s Queensland general manager, Bruce Harper, told the ABC in April the road would be completed within months.

“We’re pretty confident that the end of August is still doable,” Mr Harper said at the time.

An AVID spokesperson said there had been “significant challenges” in the building and construction industry relating to supply and labour.

“These have been exacerbated by wet weather at critical phases of the delivery program,” the spokesperson said.

“We are looking forward to delivering this vital, long-awaited piece of infrastructure to the Palmview community by the end of 2023.”

Fire fears

The Bureau of Meteorology this week declared an El Niño weather event in Australia, with severe heat predicted over coming months.

The bushfire season has also ramped up in south-east Queensland, which has reignited Harmony residents’ fears that they could become trapped.

A fire burnt through nearly 300 hectares of national park near the estate in 2021, but no property was damaged.

AVID Property Group has previously stated there was a second emergency access route out of the estate.

Mother-of-two Danielle Ferreira built in the community two years ago and said the track’s location was not widely known.

“I haven’t been taught where that is or how to access it, it certainly hasn’t been advertised as to where it is,” Ms Ferreira said.

Ms Lind said there was “bound to be a bushfire” at some stage, with the estate surrounded by forestry.

“It would make it a hell of a lot safer for everyone in the community to know that there is that second evacuation point should we need it,” Ms Lind said.

Tale of two cities

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk officially opened a new highway link road to Stockland’s sprawling Aura development south of Caloundra this week.

The estate, which is about a 20-minute drive south of Harmony, is home to 10,000 people.

The population will eventually swell to 50,000.

The $70 million dollar Bells Creek Arterial Road was co-funded by Stockland and the Queensland government.

Once complete, the Harmony estate will be home to about 12,000 residents.

A spokesperson for the state development department said the government had agreed to change the deadline for the estate’s highway connection.

“The State Assessment and Referral Agency has agreed to an extension to 30 November 2023 to allow for the completion of the works,” the spokesperson said.

Resident Brendan Livy, who recently moved to the community with his young family, said it was a 40-minute round trip to get to work.

He said it would only take five minutes once the new road was built.

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