General News
18 October, 2026
Parking plan stuck in limbo
CONSTRUCTION has finally kicked off on the long-awaited $2.5 million Kurrimine Beach boat ramp upgrade, but local residents and boaties have been left stranded in a state of administrative “limbo”.
Despite public consultation closing seven months ago in March, Cassowary Coast Regional Council has yet to release or finalise the accompanying car and trailer parking design, leaving the seaside community to navigate severe space constraints as pre-wet season good weather sets in.
Work on the state government-funded boat ramp began in September under Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) and contractor Australian Marine & Civil.
While the state-led marine infrastructure construction is underway, the responsibility for managing parking and foreshore land sits with council.
Local representatives warn that a lack of inter-agency communication between council, MSQ and the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) is compounding frustrations on the ground.
Kurrimine Beach Progress Association president Michael Acheson described the initial site works as creating a “very big mess”, adding contractors are taking up the entire footprint to carry out the upgrade.
“Not the contractor’s fault ... I do feel there’s been a lack of communication between our council and the TMR who engaged the contractors,” Mr Acheson told The Observer.
“It’s MSQ, who answer to TMR, and that’s all separate to the council.
“We’re currently trying to get some car parking sorted out because the contractors obviously need to take up the whole area, and it’s about to get pretty difficult, given the weather is coming good.”
To alleviate the bottleneck, the progress association has lobbied council to open up adjacent council-controlled land – formerly used as overflow for the caravan park – as temporary parking.
However, requests have hit a bureaucratic wall.
“We’re applying a bit of pressure to the council to sort out some temporary car parking measures, but it seems to be a circle conversation – where nobody seems to put their hand up and say ‘yes, do that’ when requesting them to open up the land,” Mr Acheson said.
“We’ve made the suggestion ... we need to open that up so that people can park and get out of the way of the contractors.”
The broader concern centres on the permanent layout.
When council sought public feedback earlier this year, proposed options sparked widespread anxiety.
Initial options included consuming large portions of popular community space at Taifalos Park or taking over land from the council-owned Kurrimine Beach Caravan Park.
The prospect of shuttering or shrinking the caravan park alarmed locals, though council later assured the public that any final design was “not expected to significantly impact” the holiday park.
In response to initial council concepts, the local safe boat access committee submitted a community-designed parking layout.
“They have not made their final decision,” Mr Acheson noted regarding the layout.
“We supplied them a design as opposed to the ridiculous one that they first sort of suggested ... ours was a hell of a lot better, and in fact the council had actually said, ‘yeah, look, hey, that doesn’t look too bad at all.’ But they’ve all said that with ‘there’s no guarantees of what we’re going to do.’”
The Observer has asked council if and when it will release its final car and trailer park design to the Kurrimine Beach community and the newspaper is awaiting a response.
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