Documents Reveal Gold Coast City Council 50 Year Old SECRET!
What they don’t want you to know, learn everything so it doesn’t happen in your back yard!
Brace yourself—this reveal is so gripping, it calls for popcorn and your favorite drink. It’s sure to keep you hooked from start to finish!
DISCLAIMER
The following information has been compiled in accordance with Engineering best practices, National benchmarks, AMCORD, IPWEA, Austroads, Queensland Streets, and Australian Standards. All Council reports, documents and traffic data has been gathered via RTI and Councils Archives. Important Note: Gold Coast Council uses these guides in their City Plans, if deviations are made which National benchmarks and Engineering best practices are being implemented, furthermore where is the mandatory undersigned documentation required to support the deviations.
It is important to note that Engineers in western countries have a code of ethics which they have to follow. In the United States there is National Society of Professional Engineers and they have a very strict code of ethics:
“Engineers shall not complete, sign, or seal plans and/or specifications that are not in conformity with applicable engineering standards. If the client or employer insists on such unprofessional conduct, they shall notify the proper authorities and withdraw from further service on the project.”
In Australia we have Engineers Australia and the code of ethics for the lack of a better word are very vague:
“Do not engage in fraudulent, corrupt, or criminal conduct “
It seems Gold Coast Council must interpret this as: “Do whatever we tell you, and if we get caught, we will deal with it then.”
Intro
Gold Coast City Council once again under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Ranked among one of the nation’s largest councils, and notorious for its secrecy. As this story unfolds you will learn undeniable evidence, and witness Councils questionable conduct and wrongdoing. The system has failed, and the people that you trusted have lied to you once again.
- You will learn how Council has been deceptive and deceitful to the people of the Koala Park catchment for over 50 years.
- You will learn that everything that Council has done regarding the ever growing traffic problem in the Koala Park catchment over the last 50 years has been simply “Tokenistic” so that you perceive Council as doing the right thing for the people.
- You will get a clear perspective through the timeline from Councils own archives of what Councils intension has always been for the catchment.
- You will learn why the Ikkina – Tabilban street route is being used as something other than it’s intended purpose.
- You will learn the reason, the so called missing link was irresponsibly not finished and blocked off by Council.
Along with many other things that will be revealed throughout the course of this reveal so that you know the truth what has been deliberately done to the beautiful catchment of Koala Park.
This is a cautionary tale of how politicians and bureaucrats use policy and procedure to deceive the ratepayers, and manipulate the system to align with their own agenda.
Lets begin.
On the 15th of June 2023 during the 832 Gold Coast Council meeting, for the first time in 50 years, Council was confronted about an inappropriate and unacceptable road diversion. Watch the reaction of former Councillor Pauline Young and the former Director for Transport and Infrastructure Alton Twine. Pauline tries to stay pokerfaced but her eyebrows blew the roof of the chambers and Alton nearly falls off his chair when the “DIVERSION” is mentioned questioning AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS and NATIONAL BENCHMARKS.
PETITION TO COUNCIL OF CITY OF GOLD COAST
We the undersigned respectfully petition the Council of City Of Gold Coast in response to “824 Transport And Infrastructure Committee Meeting Minutes” and the “Bitzios Consulting Koala Park Traffic Study” to respond and resolve the following 4 matters:
1. How did the Councils consulting Engineers “Bitzios Consulting” come to the conclusion to upgrade the classification of the Ikinna-Tabilban route from a Collector to a Major Collector. Which infrastructure road design guides were used? Also which Engineering best practices and National Benchmarks/Australian Standards were applied to this outcome?
2. How did the Councils consulting Engineers “Bitzios Consulting” come to the conclusion that the Reserve Street diversion remains as is? Why was the diversion left out of the study. Which best practice and national benchmarks were used as to how council still allows traffic from a High Order Road to be diverted into Low Order adjacent Streets only to continue back onto itself.
3. How does council consider the TOKENISTIC consultation process appropriate for an engineering problem, when council themselves created the problem in the first place.
4. We request that Councillor Daphne McDonald reads out the specially prepared Engineers report below, during the petition presentation. Council to resolve this issue with the Appropriate Outcome as outlined in the report below.
One Reserve Street resident had a brief conversation with the former Councillor Pauline Young at her regular morning coffee shop, asking her:
“When is the Reserve St debacle going to get fixed?” she replied “NEVER!”. The former Cr Pauline Young was such an asset to the community that during public consultation meetings she needed to be escorted by security.
It is important that we demonstrate what a typical Gold Coast City street looks like, what the classification is and the number of vehicles these streets carry. Council doesn’t want you to know this information but there are definite limits to the amount of traffic that is acceptable on residential streets. Below is an excerpt from Queensland Streets Design Full Guide
We have to pause here for a second and unpack the above excerpt.
Queensland Streets clearly points out that there are traffic limits for Residential streets, yet Council is failing to comply with Standards / Best Practices and National Benchmarks.
Environmental capacity is also in play, which again Council is failing to comply with Standards / Best Practices and National Benchmarks. Council thinks no one has any clue what that actually even means. [Link to Environmental Capacity paper]
The “Geometric design” of the street. Tabilban street conforms Geometrically to the design of a Collector street, however as you go up the Tabillban Street hill the grade is unacceptable 25% which has a 90° blind corner that diverts through an 80m ACCESS street (Reserve Street) then into another street via another blind corner (Ocean Parade) only to continue back onto Tabilban Street. There is nothing acceptable or compliant about the High-Order to Low-Order diversion right in the middle of a Collector route, especially when the entirety of Tabilban street exists.
Limiting the traffic to “Acceptable Environmental Capacity” excluding through traffic. Council is failing yet once again to comply with Standards / Best Practices and National Benchmarks.
- Gold Coast Highway Burleigh Heads, there is no traffic volume limit. On 12/8/2024 Traffic count 39,183 vehicles per day. This Highway is already at capacity and is designated a black spot by Council.
- West Burleigh Road Burleigh Heads, this is an Arterial Road, there is no traffic volume limit. 14/10/2023 Traffic count 35,315 vehicles per day.
- Dunlin Drive Burleigh Heads, this is a Collector and it has a limit of 3,000 vehicles per day, 6/6/2023 Traffic count 6,968 vehicles per day.
- Reserve Street Burleigh Heads, this is an Access street, 80 metres long, with access on to Reserve Street via two 90 degree blind corners. It has an upper limit of 750 vehicles per day, and as of the 8th October 2024 the traffic count is 14,062 vehicles per day. You need to keep this one in mind as this reveal unfolds.
Council relies on the ignorance of the people and their lack of understanding of the road hierarchy, Engineering best practices, benchmarks and Australian standards hoping that this diversion would remain undiscovered. Residents are not traffic engineers nor should they have to be, when they rely on the honesty and integrity of Council. That was the first mistake. Its a 50 year old hidden wrongdoing Council has kept under wraps, and for 50 years never acknowledging Reserve Street as a problem, treating it as if this street doesn’t exist and is part of Tabilban Street. When all along Reserve Street and the north section of Ocean Parade has been clearly a diversion.
It would be irresponsible for residents not to delve deeply into this matter and hold Council responsible for their wrongdoing.
No resident within Koala Park has any clue why Tabilban Street route is configured the way it is. In the first correspondence from Council , former Councillor Pauline Young on the 13th September 2016 stated “Reserve Street is classified as a local collector road”. This is a straight up LIE, Reserve Street is an access street, Council always relying on the ignorance of residents to accept this as a fact. Pauline Young had the audacity to recommend tokenistic speed humps on Reserve Street, yet in the same breath, she claims these devices are noisy and that residents don’t want them. Why wouldn’t she suggest single-lane slow points that actually work, reduce almost all through traffic, and certainly don’t create noise?
You will quickly learn, as this reveal unfolds, what the Council’s intentions really are for this catchment.
The next reply from the Mayors office on the 23rd September 2020.
Excerpt: “The Tabilban Street / Ocean Parade / Reserve Street link functions as a collector road in the city’s transport network. Collector roads have a dual purpose of providing for the movement of vehicles into and out of a larger residential catchment as well as providing access to and from adjacent properties. As such, they are expected to carry moderate volumes of traffic up to 10,000 vehicles per day with a lower speed environment than an arterial road”.
The devil is in the detail, notice the word LINK there is no such thing as a link, it’s a diversion, also a collector does not carry 10,000 vehicles per day, another LIE.
The following question was asked to Council (traffic branch). “The only document I can find that states <10,000 VPD for a Collector Road is from the Queensland Government IPWEA Street Design Manual: Walkable neighbourhoods, is this what Luke was referencing.” No reply was ever received. Be aware that the IPWEA Street Design Manual is a 2020 document only for new developments and in which it clearly states 10,000 vehicles per day for a major collector not a collector Street. The IPWEA does not apply to the Koala Park catchment as it is well over 50 years old. Even if the Tabilban Street route was a major collector which it can not be, it would have a limit of 6,000 vehicle per day. [Hierarchy Tables Link]
As we continue with this eye opening reveal you will learn through supporting documents and Engineering standards that a Collector road has a limit of <3,000 vehicles per day with slight variations within different municipalities. Interestingly enough it appears the insinuation is clear, that this route is being treated more like an arterial road. If you have any doubt about the acceptable traffic volumes for a Collector here is an example from Dunlin Drive, Council minutes 14th February 1996.
Excerpt: “Dunlin Drive would be approximately 3700 vehicles per day. This volume is reaching the higher limits of acceptability for a Residential/Commercial Collector Road”.
Once again relying on the ignorance of residents to accept as a fact that 10,000 vehicles per day is ok. In this same reply Council states “….reopening of Tabilban Street and the closure of Reserve Street is not supported at this point in time”. Again you have to read the details “reopening” Council admitting that the road was open in the past. As we already knew.
The next reply on the 18th January 2021 stated “Reserve Street functions as a collector road within the City’s road hierarchy.” this time they are saying it “functions as a collector” so it is not a Collector it only functions as one. Everything council tries to communicate to the community is filled with LIES. The function of Reserve Street is as an access street nothing more nothing less.
In effect Council is allowing Reserve Street to carry traffic that it was never designed for or meant to carry.
So how did Council getaway with this diversion for over 50 years?
Most residents would either ring up Council direct to complain, or contact their local Councillor relying on the information received to be accurate. Here is where the Council has been engaging in their deceptive tactics for years. When questioned about the missing section of Tabilban Street, the default reply would be:
“The currently unformed section of Tabilban Street forms part of the Burleigh Ridge Conservation Park, which supports a significant koala population”
This disinformation has been circulating the community for over 50 years. The actual fact is that the currently unformed section of Tabilban Street is a Gazetted dirt road which has a clearly marked fence line (boundary) that separates the road from the Burleigh Ridge Conservation park, which Council has failed in it’s duty to maintain, allowing vegetation to take over.
Roads under the Queensland Land Act (Link)
Note: although DTMR and local government have the powers to authorise various uses on roads, neither agency is able to permanently close the dedicated road and allocate the land as Unallocated State Land for another use.
While all land in a road is owned by the state, the day to day management, control and regulation are the responsibility of:
– DTMR under the Transport Infrastructure Act 1994 (TIA) for state-controlled roads; and
– local governments under the Local Government Act 2009 (LGA) and City of Brisbane Act
2010 for other roads.
Note: The fact is the roads are owned by the people. The maintaining of the roads is the responsibility of the States and local Councils for the people, with the elected representatives being the voice for the people.
Council is blatantly lying. This part of the road can never be part of Burleigh Ridge Conservation Park. The missing section of the road is in fact a road which was previously used by motorists before council blocked it off with a wooden bollard. Take note that this section of the road is not CLOSED it is in fact just blocked by Council. Even if Council wanted to close this section they could not as it would be seen as unreasonable to divert traffic from a higher order street into a lower order street when the entirety of the existing Tabilban Street exists. But that is exactly what Council is doing. UNCONSCIONABLE!
Local Government Act-2009-017 (Link)
69 Closing roads
(1) A local government may close a road (permanently or temporarily) to all traffic, or traffic of a particular class, if there is another road or route reasonably available for use by the traffic.
Someone without a deep knowledge in Traffic Engineering, Australian Standards and the Koala Park catchment history would automatically accept what Council is saying as gospel and think; this must be the reason why the route is configured this way. This couldn’t be further from the TRUTH as you will shortly learn. Council has no respect for the people and their families that have to endure this horrific state of affairs with this non compliant diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade. In effect Council has removed the environmental, social and economic wellbeing from the home owners of Reserve Street and Ocean Parade.
You don’t have to be a Traffic Engineer to realise just how ridiculous the diversion through Reserve Street is when the entirety of Tabilban Street actually exists. Here is some carnage that happens on regular basis coming up to and on Reserve Street:
Nothing to see here no safety issues to speak of… says the council.
There must be an internal joke amongst the Councillors as they refer to this diversion as a “DOG LEG” during public Council meetings.
The subsequent 50-year timeline will vividly illustrate this debacle, and it will paint a clear picture of what was and has been Councils intension all along, and the pernicious way in which Council has allowed this to manifest into the complete failure it is today, directly referencing Council documents.
USE OF ROADS BY HEAVY TRANSPORTS
Recommendation: That the Chief Engineer be requested to bring forward a recommendation for limiting the use as through traffic by heavy transports of:
(a) Stanley West and Park Streets, Burleigh Heads
(b) Tabilban, Ocean and Reserve Streets.
CONTROL OF EXTRAORDINARY TRAFFIC
Council Decision, 1/11/74: That the following streets be publicly. notified as streets to which the provisions of By-law 27 Chapter 14, concerning Extraordinary Traffic will apply:
Prince Street, Southport (Nerang Road-Queen Street)
Ward Street, Southport (Nerang Road-Queen Street)
Tahiti Avenue, Palm Beach (Cairns Avenue-Palm Beach Av.
Tabilban Street, Burleigh Heads
Muir Street, Southport (Central-Broad Street)
CONTROL OF EXTRAORDINARY TRAFFIC
From 43 Signatories (Fol.22, 12/2/75): Requesting consideration of
closure of Tabilban Street at the top of the hill in Tabilban Street
South side at the junction of Reserve Street; as the volume of
traffic has increased to almost public highway proportions.
October
1) Not to recommend road closure
2) to police trucks
3) counts taken 24/9/75
Temporary closure of Reserve Street and Ocean Parade
March
Temporary closure of Reserve Street and Ocean Parade with the view of stopping heavy vehicle traffic in a residential area.
June
There is one other factor that has not been taken into account. An ever increasing number of cars are now taking a short cut through Tabilban Street either to or from the Gold Coast highway.
Tabilban Street is limited in it’s capacity to handle through traffic.
July
362 signatures protesting the closure of Tabilban Street.
August
969 petitioners on re-opening Tabilban Street.
October
86 signatures
It is understood that Tabilban is to re-opened with a restriction to light traffic.
November
86 signatures. Plan for the restriction in Ocean Parade so that Tabilban Street can be reopened.
Matter has had a long history
March
File 11.
Matter has had a long history for and against . Council has built a traffic restriction into Tabilban Street.
April
File 12.
103 signatures. Ratepayers strongly objecting to removal or modifications to the traffic obstruction in Ocean Parade. On 12 Oct 1977 the minister for local government stated “give this new idea ago and if not workable, we will close it again forever”
May
File 13.
It is recommended that the closure of Tabilban Street remain for further 3 months trial
July
File 14.
That the matter be left for consideration when the route opened.
Request for giveway sign
November
Traffic volumes are low, Ikkina Road leads to a small residential area, and generally traffic is discouraged from using Tabilban street.
Traffic out of control
May
File 16.
Koala Park association comments
August
File 17.
Meeting with alderman John Laws to support resolutions to relieve Koala Parks ever increasing traffic. Proposals
September
File 18
665 signatures to abandon proposal to make Tabilban Street one way
Leo Foster News Article
December
File 19.
113 signatures October to abandon proposal to convert Tabilban to one way.
M1 to alleviate traffic along Tabilban. Assess situation after opening. Opening of the connection to M1 reduction of 1,265VPD
Council ignoring the problem
December
File 20.
Completion of the connection to the M1 to alleviate Tabilban Street problem. No further action to be taken. Banning right hand turn is unwarranted KP Association. There has been a slight fall of since the connection at West Burleigh but weekends have been a nightmare where volumes climb to about 8,000 cars daily.
Silly route
October
File 21.
Comments
Why can’t we have Tabilban Street straight through, this is silly.
Excuse for traffic
July
File 22.
Traffic volumes due to shopping centre
Alderman Gamin has requested action
February
File 23.
Alderman Gamin has requested that action be taken to control volumes and speed of vehicles using Tabilban Street. 40kph Speed limit also be applied to the northern end of Tabilban Study recommended with a view to applying speed control and volume limiting devices.
August
File 24.
Recommended that speed bumps be installed along Ikkina and Tabilban Street
Chicanes recommended
December
File 25.
Chicanes recommended for Tabilban Street.
Tabilban Street is providing a short cut
February
File 26.
Tabilban Street is providing a short cut between GC Highway and West Burleigh road.
No-one can limit the amount of traffic as it is a public facility. The Gregory Hotel.
Tabilban Street situation is of concern
June
File 27.
Traffic counts.
The Tabilban Street situation is of concern. In the opinion of the director if it becomes necessary to discourage through traffic because of the development.
File 28.
Developer contribution.
October
File 29.
Permanently close part of Tabilban Street. Council Decision was no!
This area of road presently forms part of the park reserve?
This portion of Tabilban Street has the potential to be developed. Closing this part of the road would inconvenience local residence wishing to use it as a public access.
December
File 30.
Contribution to Main Roads
Change traffic flow onTabilban
May
File 31.
Petition received regarding proposed traffic flows to Tabilban, Ocean Parade.
Close Reserve St
June
File 32
Petition to close Reserve Street and construct the missing link.
Koala Park Study
October
File 33.
To summarise the outcome of the KP study
File 34
Transport and Traffic report to Council to reject the petition
Challenging Councils wrongdoings
June
File 35.
Petition 2
October
File 36.
Report to Council from Transport and Traffic on petition 2 and 3
File 37.
That Council rejects the petition proposition of closing Reserve Street and constructing the Tabilban Street link at Burleigh Heads.
The following internal document is one the Council did not want the residents to have, saying that they would misconstrue the report. The fact is they did not want us to know what they have known all along. Document titled, “Bitzios report GCLR3 construction period Burleigh Head traffic impact and improvements issued 14th October 2020”(link) however they were forced under the Right To Information Act. They were determined to prevent the residents from obtaining this report, as it unmistakably identifies the diversion.
This report also verifies that Council is using this route as a bypass, and it is considered as part of the broader network. How does Council think that the residents of Koala park wouldn’t find this information? In order for this route to be up to standard and function as a bypass it would need to be a minimum standard of a SUB-ARTERIAL road which currently it is not.
The report states very clearly:
“Vehicles using Tabilban Street are currently diverted from Tabilban Street to Reserve Street and Ocean Parade to continue along Tabilban Street route”.
This type of diversion was never acceptable. Austroads clearly states it:
AUSTROADS Guide to Traffic Management Part 8: Local Area Traffic Management.
Traffic diversion may have positive or negative consequences. It would be regarded as an improvement if traffic were diverted to a higher-order road that was better able to handle it. However, it is generally regarded as unacceptable if traffic is diverted to a lower-order street or overloads neighbouring streets of similar order in the network.
Additionally this report highlights that council can achieve similar benefits in reducing travel time for motorists using this unofficial bypass, by enhancing the attractiveness of this route through reconfiguration of the existing diversion, without completing the Tabilban Street missing link.
Interestingly this report makes no attempt to reduce the number of vehicles using this route nor does it mention that the inappropriate diversion should be removed. This report also indicates increased traffic on this route during and post LR3 construction. So Bitzios failed to identify the route mis-configuration, after stating that traffic is being diverted through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade, failed to identify that traffic is diverted from a high-order street to low order street, failed to identify that this route is being used as an unofficial BYPASS and is performing other than the function of it’s classification and that it needs to be brought up to the correct standard. As this story unfolds you will learn that Bitzios has failed in many more instances. Is this a coincidence or are they just following Council briefings?
Council is always trying to portray they are listening to the residents and doing what they can to deter through traffic. This is simply not true. Firstly lets look at what Council has done in the area over the many decades.
Number 1. The traffic islands entering onto Tabilban Street from West Burleigh Road, how do these deter traffic. Simple answer is they don’t, they are simply tokenistic and at great expense to the ratepayer. They achieve nothing.
Number 2. A slow point chicane that has been put on the intersection of Koel Street and Tabilban Street in an already 40 kph zone, which is easily traversed at speeds greater than 40 kph, and why would you put a slow point at an intersection? That does not seem logical. The original chicane had a garden bed which was not replaced and which now trucks have free reign to just drive straight over the top.
Number 3. The chicane that was originally on the corner of Ocean Parade and Reserve Street actually did what it was built for, stopping trucks, which was replaced with a chicane that is little more than a bump on the road, which trucks now easily drive over the top of.
Number 4. Speed humps, again not to deter through traffic, but to slow traffic, in a 40KPH zone. Maybe signs that say speed camera’s operate in this area, a fraction of the cost of 4 speed humps. But they do create noise issues, that’s always good for the home owner’s that live next to them. As was said earlier, everything Council has done has been tokenistic and at great expense to the ratepayer.
The key point here is that Council has never put in anything to deter traffic such as one way slow points. Just stop for a moment and digest everything up to this point. It is very clear what is going on here.
Some people think: “The traffic problem is due to Google maps and all the navigation apps recommending this route” these people are Clueless. Did we have Google maps and GPS navigation in the 70’s?
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.
Council loves this type of idiocy as it gives them a good scapegoat, someone else to blame for a problem that they have created themselves.
As early as 1975, Council records indicate that 1,300-3,000 vehicles per day used Ikkina – Tabilban Street route. This route has evidently functioned as an unofficial BYPASS since the mid-1970s.
Lets prove beyond any doubt that this route in fact is being used as a Bypass route:
-Average weekdays of 1,750 Vehicles Per Day.
-Gold Coast population was 110,000 with a population growth of 5.48%
1.6% of the population used this route in 1975.
-In 2024 8th October the traffic count was 14,062 Vehicles Per Day.
-Average weekdays of 13,119 Vehicles Per Day.
-Gold Coast population is 742,000 with a population growth of 1.4%.
1.7% of the population used this route in 2024.
By Councils own numbers there is 86% through traffic on this route, this is clearly used as an unofficial bypass. Could you imagine the peace and tranquility with 86% less traffic using our streets. Just another one of Councils many failures.
The following criteria determines what is a bypass:
The following is the criteria for determining the function of a road:
“The concept of a hierarchy of roads is thus used to define the main function of each road, which can then form the basis of ongoing planning of land uses and system management aimed at reducing the mixing of incompatible functions.
• traffic with direct business in, or having a direct relationship with an area being considered. These movements include access to, or circulation within, an area.
• traffic that has no direct business in, or relationship with, the area under consideration. These movements are sometimes referred to as “through” traffic or “bypass” traffic.”
So it is clear that in the context of the Tabilban Street route it is fulfilling both criteria. The corridor is setup between a highway and an arterial road and the 86% through traffic defines the main function of this route, primary function, BYPASS, and a secondary function a Collector. Council has misclassified this road deliberately so they do not have to bring it up to standard. We can’t forget that there is a non compliant diversion through Reserve St and Ocean Parade which needs to be removed.
The following framework is critical:
The above guidelines irrefutably demonstrate Councils failure to bring the Tabilban Street route up to standard and remove the diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade. As the example demonstrates if a road is performing another function other then its classification then you have to bring it up to the correct standard. This in fact was also confirmed by the former Director for Transport and Infrastructure, Alton Twine. It would seem foolish for Council to refute that this route in fact is functioning as an unofficial Bypass and yet this is exactly what Council it doing.
Tabilban Street being a Collector has an upper limit of 3,000 vehicles per day. Take note that the cross section meets todays standards yet it was constructed in the late 1960’s with correct pavement and verge width with on street parking. However Tabilban Street is blocked of half way along its route, consequently all traffic using Tabilban Street is forced to divert onto Reserve Street which is a narrow access street then onto Ocean Parade only to continue back onto Tabilban Street. Council has no right nor does it have the authority to block off a section of a road when the entirety of Tabilban Street is needed for continuity of this route.
A road is considered still needed when:
– it is required to provide continuity to an existing road network (however temporary closure may be acceptable in this situation);
In the 1950’s the only access into this catchment was via West Burleigh Road onto Tabilban Street which continued over the hill and down to the bottom of the Southern end of the hill. Koala Park starting at Djerral Avenue had to be built up and filled as it was part of the Tallebudgera Creek system. Note: See photo below.
In the 1960’s Koala Park had all the roads in place, some still dirt, and you could also enter the catchment via Ikkina Road from the Gold Coast Highway. Tabilban Street and Ikkina Road are classified as Collectors in this route, allowing residents to get in and out of the catchment. Note: Tabilban Street hill is still dirt in the photo below.
The hill on the West and South side of Tabilban Street including Reserve Street were still dirt in the late 1960’s. It was during this time while sealing the roads, Council did the unthinkable. While sealing the Southern end of Tabilban Street hill Council made a conscious decision not to seal the West section of Tabilban Street hill, consequently diverting Collector route traffic via Reserve Street a local access street and Ocean Parade. This type of route configuration was unacceptable back in the day and certainly wouldn’t be tolerated or allowed today. The section of road that was not sealed and is now blocked is a Gazetted road.
So why is there a non compliant diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade? You’re going to have to wait a little longer for this reveal as we explain other critical information first.
In 1977 with just over 3,000 vehicles per day using this route, residence found the traffic so unbearable that on 12th October 1977 the famous Hon. R.J Hinze said: Link to Document
Excerpt: “Give this idea a go and if not workable, we will close it again forever”.
The idea Hon. R.J Hinze was referring to was a chicane on the corner of Reserve St and Ocean parade which had substantial height made from slate rock for a garden bed plus a steel centre guard rail also a lockable gate for special services to be able to get through. There was also a second gate on the top of the hill on the corner of Reserve Street and Tabilban Street.
Once again nothing happened, a broken promise, political lip service and lies.
Comparing this to the current situation, how does Council expect residents to endure up to 14,000+ vehicles per day being diverted through a narrow residential access street? What Council is doing through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade is absurd and irresponsible.
Gold Coast Council is one of the largest in the country yet surprisingly has not got a detailed Road Hierarchy guide outlining road functions and traffic volume limits. Doesn’t this seem a little strange or are they hiding something? Other smaller Councils seem to have one but not our Gold Coast Council. Perhaps this is intentional, not having a detailed Road Hierarchy guide as Council would need to follow Engineering best practices, National benchmarks, AMCORD, IPWEA, Austroads, Queensland streets, and Australian Standards. Not having this guide Council feels they can do what ever they want and no one will hold them accountable.
Road Hierarchy is one of the most important tools used for road network and land use planning. Roads are broken up into functional classification. It is crucial that Authorities follow and use the Road Hierarchy, failing to do so creates loss of amenities, traffic friction and breakdown of the traffic network.
Eppell Olsen and Partners have been at the forefront of research in road hierarchy and standard setting. Their Four-Level Road Hierarchy is widely adopted by authorities across Australia, establishing them as leaders in this field.
This is what a Four Level Road Hierarchy is made up of:
ARTERIAL ROAD
SUB ARTERIAL ROAD
COLLECTOR STREET
ACCESS STREET
We are only really concerned with the Collectors and Local Streets / Access Streets.
Collector streets are intended to carry traffic between the arterial or distributor roads and local streets. They are not expected to carry high traffic volumes, and are not used for longer distance travel. They are used at the beginning and end of the journey within a catchment. These roads help to collect traffic at the neighbourhood level and may provide access to abutting properties. Ideally they should discourage through traffic by not providing continuous through routes between arterials or distributors. Another Council failure. They are generally among the lowest order streets, but within a catchment compared to an access street they are a higher order street that may be used as a bus route, expected to carry no more then 3000 vehicles per day. In instances where the catchment has expanded, Major Collectors are used to collect traffic from Collector streets onto arterials or distributors. These roads have no direct lot access only consolidated such as shopping centers. Major Collectors should not carry more then 6000 vehicles per day, however NEW development according to the 2020 IPWEA a Major Collector can have up to 10,000 vehicles per day.
Local/Access Streets are the lowest order streets in the tributary local system and they exist to provide access to residential properties. Their main function is to provide both property access and residential amenity (resident safety and amenity are dominant). They should carry no more then 750 vehicles per day so that residential amenities can be preserved. Major Collectors have a much wider road reserve width, with no individual lot access.
Traffic volumes within residential catchments are not arbitrarily chosen numbers fabricated by councils. Instead these limits are derived from what is referred to as “Environmental Capacities” which were first introduced by Buchanan and Appleyard in separate research during the 1960‟s.[link to the paper] Both authors settled on broad-brush traffic thresholds of 2,000-3,000 vehicles per day. Traffic Authorities around the world have been using this as a guide. In Australia the AMCORD methods provide some insight into the issue of environmental capacity, and while they do not provide any definitive rule-of-thumb figures (as each situation and local area should be considered on its individual merits), reference is often made to 2,000 vehicles per day in many instances. This is perhaps an indirect admission that a typical daily threshold limit for a local residential street is around 2,000 vehicles. In Australia a National benchmark is 3,000 vehicles per day for a Collector Street and 750 for Local Access Street. Individual lot access is only permitted on minor roads that will ultimately carry less than 3000 VPD.
Queensland Streets:- The guidelines place a definite upper limit on the acceptable maximum traffic volumes on a residential street. Link to the Guide.
We know this is a lot of information to take in all at once, but you have to realise Council is operating on the basis that you are clueless. Council is always prepared to spin any narrative which will divide the community and support their own agenda, don’t forget they have done so for 50 years.
This brings us to a ridiculous misleading statement made to the community in the “824 Transport & Infrastructure Committee Meeting 4 October 2022”
Excerpt: “Opening Tabilban missing link induces 48 per cent more traffic use of the Koala Park route in the future than current (9,000 to 13,295 vehicles per day)”.
This statement has only one intent, and that is to divide the community, and to have the residents outraged to go against the opening of the missing section of the road. The reality is that Council is obligated to open up the road and remove the diversion as Council created the problem in the first place, however they are refusing to do so. Council created a problem the should have never existed.
The data in this statement is derived from Computer Modelling, theoretical not empirical evidence, modelling can never prove anything. Numbers can and are so easily manipulated.
Excerpt: “The reality is that it is widely known within the engineering profession that all traffic models are wrong.” Charles L. Marohn Jr.
“On major roads, traffic efficiency is primary consideration, whereas on minor roads safety and amenity takes precedence.”
NOTE: To the Traffic Engineers responsible for the traffic modelling we have already surpassed the 48% as of the 8th October 2024 the traffic count was 14,062 vehicles per day, however the missing link is not open. Guess we can confidently say that Council Engineers have got it wrong once again, why is this not surprising.
Traffic will organically increase with population growth as it has from the start. Council playing the waiting game and in their pernicious way are fully aware that in time traffic will grow and come to a stand still in this catchment.
So one has to ask the question why is council not using LATM such as road closures and single lane slow points to discourage and reduce the through traffic on the Tabilban Street route which runs through a residential catchment? It is because Council has been using this route as a SUB-ARTERIAL road from as early as the mid 1970’s. This route is Councils UNOFFICIAL BYPASS.
If Council does nothing to curtail the amount of traffic using this unofficial bypass by using road closures and the appropriate LATM that will actually deter the traffic, and not the tokenistic LATM that has been implemented thus far at ratepayers expense, the residents will over time be putting up with more and more traffic. As you read on this will be reiterated by the former director of Transport and Infrastructure, Alton Twine.
This is going to be a very hard pill to swallow for some, but here it goes.
The Gold Coast Highway between Ikkina Road and West Burleigh Road is identified by Council as a Blackspot. Hang on a second, Council still needs to run the LR4 along the Gold Coast Highway. Where is all the traffic going to go?????? through the Tabilban Street route, the UNOFFICIAL BYPASS that has a non compliant diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade in the centre. This debacle goes from bad to worse, old Council maps show George St going from the Highway to West Burleigh Road which appears to resemble an Arterial or Sub-Arterial road. George St would have been the official bypass, instead Council has allowed the Tabilban Street route which runs through a residential catchment to perform the function of that which clearly should have always been the function for George Street. A bitter pill to swallow! This was also stated by a long time resident whose family has lived in the catchment since the mid 1950’s. Clearly another failure!
[Link to Map Cadastral_Original_cad-map-town-gold-coast-sh3-1976]
From the beginnings of traffic calming in Australia and New Zealand, congestion on the arterial system was not seen by local government as a reason to tolerate unacceptable local traffic conditions or to oppose measures to relieve that local traffic (e.g. Loder & Bayly 1974: Section 3.11).
All information the Council releases to the public regarding this matter is irrefutably disinformation with a single intent to divide the community. Council is always trying to disinform and hold back on critical information so they can keep the status quo as it aligns with their agenda, not willing to remove the diversion which is their own wrongdoing.
Council blocked a section of Tabilban Street, which is gazetted, and which was previously used by motorists when the roads were unformed and unsealed, and even when all other roads were sealed motorists still used said section of road while it was still a dirt road, until Council blocked it with a wooden bollard, forcing all traffic to divert through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade. This is not reasonable. Council has no right nor the authority to do so.
Local Government Act-2009-017:
69 Closing roads
(1) A local government may close a road (permanently or temporarily) to all traffic, or traffic of a particular class, if there is another road or route reasonably available for use by the traffic.
Council never wanted any of this information to get out into the public, as this clearly points out Councils wrongdoing. Reserve street is irrevocably nothing more then a short access street, always has been, always will be. Council seems to think it is appropriate to divert up to 14,000+ vehicles per day from a High-order street, Tabilban Street, onto a lower-order street, Reserve Street and then onto Ocean Parade only to continue along Tabilban Street. It simply makes no sense.
Council attempted a gradual reconfiguration of Reserve Street and Ocean Parade intersection without making it too obvious. On 10th May 2016 Cr Pauline Young notified residents that the blister islands (chicane) on the corner of Reserve Street and Ocean Parade was going to be removed. [Link to Letter]
“The island on the southern side impacts on larger vehicles and creates a noise issue.”
Reserve Street residents responded with a petition and successfully stopped the removal of these blister islands.
Now lets ponder on this for a minute, there are “7 road closed to truck” sign’s between West Burleigh road and the Gold Coast Highway. Why would former Councillor Pauline Young be concerned about larger vehicles? There are clear signs throughout Koala park stating no truck access, why would she want to make it easier for large trucks to get through? Because this is an Unofficial Bypass, yet Council can’t admit this as they would need to bring it up to standard.
The next move was done very unprofessionally and very sneaky via SOCIAL MEDIA by the former Councilor Daphne McDonald on December 21st 2023 via her Facebook page see below: [Link to Post]
TABILBAN STREET, BURLEIGH HEADS – HEAVY VEHICLES
Residents on and close to Tabilban Street in Burleigh Heads (Koala Park) have expressed concerns with heavy vehicles using this route. I requested further investigation from the City’s Traffic Engineering team and following their review, prepared this explanation:
In accordance with the Queensland Road Rules, a heavy vehicle means a vehicle with Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) of 4.5t or more. To impose this weight limit to the existing No Truck signs already present upon entering Tabilban Street would exclude vehicles associated with waste collection, fire services, gas delivery and any other vehicle over 4.5t GVM. While exemptions are available, the enforcement of a weight limit by the Queensland Police Service would be impracticable in practice. For these reasons, and in the absence of weak infrastructure such a timber bridges or shallow steel culverts requiring a weight restriction, the application of a weight limit on Tabilban Street, Burleigh Heads is not supported.
Please keep in mind that both the Queensland Road Rules and Queensland Police Service are State Government areas of responsibility.
Although not the outcome immediate residents to the area had hoped for, I trust this assists in providing an explanation.
One person asked Daphne the million dollar question on the above post:
A note from a Resident who has lived in the area from the 50’s:
Motorists speeding up and over the hill was not the reason the road was closed, sorry blocked. All the streets were still dirt back in the sixties and were often not in the best condition, speeding over the hill was not an issue. Also 80% of cars back in the day could not even get up the south side of the hill when it was still a dirt street, especially when it was in poor condition and heavily rutted. As for the heavy traffic, the chicane could have been put any where on Tabilban Street without diverting traffic through adjacent residential streets. Remember the chicane was put up after Tabiban Street was closed off. As said in this report one way slow points should have been implemented to discourage the heavy traffic. Chicanes do not discourage they only slow the traffic, they have achieved nothing. Traffic has grown year on year. Council has no documentation on why they closed/blocked Tabilban Street which they are required to do.
Note: The real reason why this was done is documented in this reveal.
Can you guess what Daphnes reply was to the above question?????? There was no reply. This is one of many instances where Council did not reply to questions put forth to Council. Why would that be?
And just like that Council has come up with an explanation why they no longer support the “No Truck Signs”. They need more traffic coming through this Unofficial Bypass.
Council’s next action is cunning and executed without any prior notice. On 25th Feb 2024 in the middle of the night paining yellow lines along Ocean Parade between Reserve St and Tabilban Street removing the rights of the people to park on their own residential streets. This is simply an infringement of the peoples rights.
On 25th August 1981 in Council meeting minutes:
“It is considered that the suggested “No Standing Anytime” signs should not be installed as it would be irresponsible of Council to deny the residence of Ocean Parade the facility of on street parking”
There, Council said it. This Council is irresponsible!
Ocean Parade Residents complained about the removal of the on street parking and as a result one completely non-compliant car park was instated. This carpark was protruding over the footpath, which meant people in wheelchairs had to manoeuvre onto to the street and into oncoming traffic with over 14,000 vehicles per day using this street. Council realized their own wrongdoing and this carpark was very quickly removed and shifted back onto the road with the centerline moved off centre.
The incompetence of the Gold Coast Council is beyond comprehension.
To the Council and their traffic engineers. Just think of what you just did and give back to the people their rights to park on their street, what you never had the right to take away in the first place. The street is 10 metres wide 3.75 metres +3.75 metres +2.50 metre parking spot.
Clearly todays Council is demonstrating zero consideration and an irresponsible attitude toward the home owners that have to endure this diverted traffic 24/7. All amenities have been removed, Council has broken so many guidelines failing to meet benchmarks and Australian standards by instating this diversion.
Why would Council do such a thing, blocking a road and instating an inappropriate unacceptable diversion?
Introducing Mr X. proprietor and operator of a dredging company which was contracted to build up the Koala Park area in the late 1950’s.
To make this story short and to the point, Mr X owned and lived in number 14 Reserve Street, in Koala Park and simply did not want traffic running down two sides of his property. And good for Mr X as he had friends in high places. Surprise…surprise Tabilban Street never got totally sealed with asphalt and the diversion came into play and the so called missing link eventually blocked off. One could reasonably assume that this might be one of the earliest indicators that the “The Game of Mates”(Book by Dr Cameron Murray) within the Gold Coast City Council was already in play.
Statutory Declaration from a resident confirming this.[Click to Download]
We spoke to many Traffic Engineers during our investigation and research. This community is very small, the Engineers we spoke too wanted to stay anonymous as they were concerned about speaking out against the Council and the effect it could have on their reputations and careers.
An award winning Engineer, Alton Twine, who was also Councils former director of transport and infrastructure, when referring to Tabilban Street and the diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade stated: “why isn’t this going straight through, this isn’t good, I wouldn’t want to live here”
Councils former consulting Engineers stated: “Council is aware what they are doing, it’s unquestionably a diversion which was unacceptable back in the day, and certainly would not be acceptable today. It goes against best practices all Engineering standards, guide lines and national benchmarks.”
Another Consulting engineer: “The way this route is currently configured, with this amount of traffic coming through this catchment, Reserve Street and Ocean Parade corner should be severed into two catchments.
Yet another Engineer: “This is definitely unacceptable, Reserve Street/Ocean Parade is a diversion there is no question about that, Council should have used appropriate LATM. The engineer went on to say: “if Council were serious about discouraging through traffic, single lane slow points should have been installed.” He explained that this treatment would not be detrimental to the residents of this catchment, allowing them free movement, but would have deterred the majority of through traffic.
So lets recap some of the Council breaches so far:
AUSTROADS Guide to Traffic Management Part 8: Local Area Traffic Management:
– Traffic diversion may have positive or negative consequences. It would be regarded as an improvement if traffic were diverted to a higher-order road that was better able to handle it. However, it is generally regarded as unacceptable if traffic is diverted to a lower-order street or overloads neighbouring streets of similar order in the network.
– It has been a long underlying principle of LATM that local streets should only be available for the terminal ends of journeys and for local circulation, and not to be regarded as part of the regional urban transport network.”
– From the beginnings of traffic calming in Australia and New Zealand, congestion on the arterial system was not seen by local government as a reason to tolerate unacceptable local traffic conditions or to oppose measures to relieve that local traffic (e.g. Loder & Bayly 1974: Section 3.11).
Framework of the Road Planning and Design Manual RPDM Chapter 1:
“While there is a high degree of compatibility between this administrative classification and the relevant functional classification, there is not always a direct relationship between them. For example, some District Roads have the characteristics of an arterial road and carry high volumes of traffic. In these cases, planners and designers should adopt the appropriate standards for the function the road performs.”
Local Government Act-2009-017
69 Closing roads
(1) A local government may close a road (permanently or temporarily) to all traffic, or traffic of a particular class, if there is another road or route reasonably available for use by the traffic.
Roads under the Queensland Land Act:
A road may be used for travelling and access purposes by means of a vehicle, walking, horse, etc. unless it is restricted under the provisions of an Act. The fact that a road is not constructed does not diminish its status as road and therefore may still be available for use by the public for that purpose.
3.1.3 A road is still needed when…
Section 101(3) states that the Minister must refuse a road closure application if the Minister is satisfied the road is still needed.
A road is considered still needed when:
– it is required to provide continuity to an existing road network (however temporary closure may be acceptable in this situation);
Note: although DTMR and local government have the powers to authorise various uses on roads, neither agency is able to permanently close the dedicated road and allocate the land as Unallocated State Land for another use.
Council has always been under the assumption they will never be legally challenged on this diversion.
A question that was specifically drafted by an engineer and a lawyer. Despite being asked four times, Council declined to provide their position on this matter:
QUESTION TO COUNCIL:
The question is very straight forward that any Traffic Engineer can answer. There is no need for any further commentary or details. This is not referring to Tabilban Street or Reserve Street, it could be anywhere in the Gold Coast City council jurisdiction.
“What is Council’s position on closing a section of a High-Order Collector street and consequently diverting all traffic via a Low-Order Access street only to continue back on to the same High-Order Collector street?”.
I look forward to hearing the Council’s position on the above question. Do you “Approve” or “Disapprove”?
REPLY FROM COUNCIL:
“On face value, I don’t recall anywhere on the Gold Coast where this scenario occurs. Without any further context or information, I cannot provide a meaningful response to your representation. I am happy to discuss further on the phone or at a meeting if that helps.”
Providing a response, either-way “Approve” or “Disapprove,” would place Council in a highly incriminating position. Instead Council opts to mislead by claiming, “there is no such scenario.” Clearly there is only one scenario like this on the Gold Coast, that is the traffic from Tabilban Street being diverted through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade back onto Tabilban Street. If you recall earlier Councils own Engineers pointed out the diversion in their report “Bitzios report GCLR3 construction period Burleigh Head traffic impact and improvements issued 14th October 2020”
This report states it very clearly:
“Vehicles using Tabilban Street are currently diverted from Tabilban Street to Reserve Street and Ocean Parade to continue along Tabilban Street route”.
The Mayor’s office made a deliberate effort to avoid using the term “diversion,” instead referring to it as a “LINK” in one of their responses. “The Tabilban Street/Ocean Parade/Reserve Street link functions as a collector road in the city’s transport network.” also they admit the missing section of Tabilban Street was open previously and used by motorists. “On the basis of this data and research the reopening of Tabilban Street and the closure of Reserve Street is not supported at this point in time.”
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, a Civil Engineer, appears to be ignoring a longstanding engineering wrongdoing that the council itself created 50 years ago. His apparent indifference raises questions about his integrity. Interestingly, whenever discussions arise in the Council Chambers concerning this matter, the Mayor is conspicuously absent. Is this a mere coincidence, or does it suggest something more?
After countless hours of extensive research and consulting with Traffic Engineers, it was reconfirmed that in fact the diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade has always been inappropriate and has to be removed. Also due to Engineering standards the grade of Tabilban Hill would need to be lowered as much as possible, as a result Reserve Street will have to be closed off. The local Councillor at the time Daphne McDonald was brought up to speed and made aware of the findings and held several meetings with Transport and Traffic officers discussing the issues. As of January 2021 Gold Coast City Council was aware that Reserve Street residents have finally uncovered Councils 50 year old wrongdoing.
Armed with all the facts, a petition was drafted in a manner as not to call out Council for any wrongdoing or make them look foolish. The petition was worded in a friendly tone and tabled on 29th January 2021: “This petition is to close Reserve St and join Tabilban St South and North easing the traffic flow through Koala Park in Burleigh Heads.” The petition was accepted and referred to Traffic and Transport committee. This petition was essentially put on the back burner and stalled getting pushed back at every Traffic and Transport meeting. “Nothing short of a Classic Council move”.
After over a 4 month wait, a meeting was granted and held on 28th May 2021 between Reserve Street residents and the Director at the time for Transport and Infrastructure, Alton Twine. This was the most transparent and candid meeting revealing critical information to further support, what residents already knew. The following quotes are taken directly from the meeting transcript.
The Director stated:
“The first time I drove up the Tabilban hill with my wife I thought why isn’t this going through why am I turning into Reserve Street? This isn’t good, I wouldn’t want to live here”. “I spoke with my Engineers and they said that this route is doing well, I told them it’s not good enough, we have to look at this”.
The Director was asked a very important question, why was this diversion instated and if there is any supporting documents, he replied:
“I looked through the Archives to see why this was done and there are no records”.
Also the residents searched the archives and also requested an RTI search, which didn’t return any supporting documents. There are no documents to support the Council on why they allowed this to happen. [link to the RTI document]
The Director came up with the scenario:
“You know back in the day the old cars couldn’t go up steep hills so this could be the reason why”
The residents quickly dismissed his scenario pointing out that the section of road that was blocked off has much less of an incline then that of the south side so this was definitely not the reason.
It was disclosed to the Director by one of the residents why this was done, and his reply was:
Statutory Declaration from a resident explaining why.[Click to Download]
“This would explain why I couldn’t find any records”.
The director was asked if the unformed section of Tabilban Street is gazetted:
“Yes it is gazetted”
This just reconfirmed to the residents what was already known. The residents revealed that they have been doing independent traffic counts since 2016 to which he was very surprised. When he saw the traffic volumes going through Reserve Street he was surprised to say the least as the numbers he had been given by Council officers were older count numbers.
He stated:
“The traffic data is very compelling and already at SUB ARTERIAL levels.” “If you had to ask me it is clear that this has been setup as a BYPASS between two state controlled roads”.
Remember George Street?
A proposal was put forward by residents that a simple solution to the problem that would cost nothing would be to close of the catchment to through traffic, his reply was:
“Yes this is one option, but I tell you it will be quickly dismissed, it is already a movement, if anything it needs to be enhanced.” “light rail or no light rail, traffic will increase in this catchment”.
The following statement made by the then director reconfirms the state of affairs:
“If we identify it, then we are obligated to bring it up to standard, we will have to take down the hill as much as possible to meet todays standards, to finish off the missing section of Tabilban, it’s not going to be cheap but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, we should do what is right.”
He also made a statement that “infrastructure projects are at least 10 years behind of schedule due to all the developments, we can’t keep up” he went on to say “A Traffic Study of the broader area will be undertaken and this route will be looked at as a BYPASS, previously it has never been looked at as a BYPASS. This study shouldn’t take long perhaps a few months and will cost about $50k”.
The Director was unsure if this has to go to public consultation.
A short while after this meeting Alton Twine lost his position as the Director for Transport and Infrastructure and became Director of Lifestyle and Community? Alton Twine is an award winning Civil Engineer, why was he demoted? Perhaps his strong ethical Engineering standards didn’t lineup with Council’s agenda?
The chief petitioner received an unexpected call from a Council Engineer, FISHING for information, asking how their traffic counts are conducted and it’s accuracy. The Engineer was surprised to learn the counts have a minimal 3% error margin. He revealed Councils counts can have up to 25% error margin due to the use of tube counters. In closing he asked an even more alarming question “Why are you doing this?” Straight out of the gate we can conclude by this question Council is concerned.
The petition which was tabled on 29th January 2021 sat in Council for over 4 months then it was announced at its ordinary meeting #803 on 8th June 2021, Council resolved to undertake a comprehensive traffic management study of the Koala Park area.
Community Consultation for the Koala Park Transport Management Study was announced for 26th May 2022 over 3 nights. Council engineers came up with 3 options as a solution which residents had to vote on during the information session.
It is clear what Council has set-out to achieve, and in order to achieve their objective they have to go through the tokenistic consultation process. Lets just quickly recap:
– One year prior to the petition to open up the missing section of Tabilban Street, Council was contemplating this opening, however it wasn’t financially beneficial for Council as stated in this report [link]. This is the report they didn’t want the residents to have.
– The former Director Alton Twine stated “it’s not going to be cheap but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, we should do what is right.” he is referring to the missing section of Tabilban.
– There is no reason to present 3 options when only one is the real solution.
– You don’t involve the public when it comes to an Engineering problem, and to top it off this is a problem that Council created by shifting traffic flow through Reserve street and Ocean Parade and creating a problem which should not exit, which needs to be fixed. Remember the traffic flow was shifted (diverted) for the worst of reasons.
To really drive home the last statement here is a comment from a Koala Park Community group by a resident Paul Noonan that lives in the Catchment and just happens to be the “Regional Director, South CoastRegional Director, South Coast Department of Transport & Main Roads”
We cant forget this:
AUSTROADS Guide to Traffic Management Part 8: Local Area Traffic Management:– From the beginnings of traffic calming in Australia and New Zealand, congestion on the arterial system was not seen by local government as a reason to tolerate unacceptable local traffic conditions or to oppose measures to relieve that local traffic (e.g. Loder & Bayly 1974: Section 3.11).
And yet Council is not even attempting to put in the appropriate LATM’s to truly deter the through traffic. Appropriate LATM’s for this type of treatment are: Road closures and Single Lane Slow Points. WHY????
Welcome to the Clown Show
Public Consultation Sessions Begin
The consultation information sessions were held by Jake Matuzic Council Engineer. It was clear right from the start what Council set out to achieve. Jake was observed telling residents: “Council doesn’t want to open up the missing link”. Also “Do nothing is also an option”. This last statement Jake made I’m going to let you ponder on for a bit and draw your own conclusion: “In the missing section of the road there are Koalas “NESTING” and there is also one very special tree”. It was at that moment we were waiting for Jake to tell everyone that there is also a UNICORN living there along with a family of leprechauns.
NOTE TO JAKE MATUZIC: Koalas are marsupials and carry their babies in their pouch, they do not nest.
The Consultation process is a way of managing people, a baby sitting service. The following comedy sketch depicts the Consultation process for what it truly is.
The Koala Park Study findings and recommendation including the response to the petition was finally delivered after a staggering 15 months “824 Transport & Infrastructure Committee Meeting 4 October 2022”. It was stated:
“That Council rejects the petition proposition of closing Reserve Street and constructing the Tabilban Street link at Burleigh Heads.”
“The Koala Park route is performing a major collector road function, not a bypass link,
and its current use is applicable to its function.”
“with 86% through traffic”
“The majority of driveways along Reserve Street have adequate sight lines for vehicles entering
Reserve Street, however several of the driveways on the eastern side are not perpendicular
with the road, which impacts on vehicle manoeuvrability and access when entering Reserve
Street.”
“That low cost safety treatments at the Tabilban Street – Reserve Street curve and crest be implemented as soon as practical.”
That engineering investigations be undertaken into the local network concepts identified in the Koala Park Traffic Management Study with a report to be considered by the Transport and Infrastructure Committee within 12 months, and that this report include a review of the outcomes delivered in Part 3.
Let us quickly explain what the “low cost treatments” are because this is the biggest insult to the whole community. The following works were deployed:
1. Extra line markings on the Tabilban Street hill. More of nothing and has nothing to do with reducing or deterring the traffic.
2. Two blister islands with signs on the bottom of Tabilban Street hill. This also has nothing to do with reducing or deterring traffic. These only cause a safety hazard as a lot of vehicles cannot make it up the hill and as a result end up reversing back down the hill. On regular occasions trucks reversing back down the hill would get stuck on the island and destroy the signs. (see photo below). These two traffic islands were simply obstacles on the road and create a hazard for motorists and cyclists. Irresponsible and incomprehensible. Council was contacted on a regular basis in regards to these blister island signs and the signs on the corner of Reserve St and Ocean Parade being destroyed by trucks. Council replied by saying that this is not caused by trucks, this is a result of vandalism and that Police should be contacted. Can you believe the audacity that the Gold Coast City Council has? On the installation of these two traffic islands an email was sent to Council by one of the home owners and requested the cost of the two traffic islands and what the two traffic islands were meant to achieve, no reply was received. These two traffic islands have finally now been removed.
3. The next treatment was a speed hump to be installed on Reserve Street. The residents after confirming with their Traffic Engineer, that putting a speed hump anywhere along the Ikkina / Tabilban Street route including Reserve St, is against Australian Standards. Council was notified and as a result the speed hump was not installed.
These three treatments estimated cost was $100,000 and achieve absolutely nothing. One was not installed because it did not comply with Australian Standards. One was installed then removed as they were nothing more than a hazard to motorists. Then we are left with line markings on the hill. When it’s all said and done these line markings must be the most expensive lines on a road in Australia, and to boot they have to be done again because they had to reseal the hill again which as of the 25th October 2024 still has not been completed. Why?
As to the “Engineering investigations be undertaken within 12 months” No investigation was undertaken. Council always relies on the residence to forget and move on with their lives. Remember this would have been an investigation on lines drawn on the road and two traffic islands that served no purpose, they were simply hazardous obstacles on the road that were installed then eventually removed. Again, at ratepayers expense. Should ratepayers be reimbursed, as one can be sure that the cost of the two traffic islands (hazards) to be installed then removed would have been in the ten’s of thousands of dollars?
Lets just remind everyone that this Koala Park Traffic study was a result of a petition that was tabled at the 797 Council meeting on 29th January 2021 which delivered three proposed solutions. This took 15 months to complete and cost $200k, however the DIVERSION was left out of the 600 page study rendering it irrelevant, failing to address the core problem. Why did the study fail to address the diversion? This study was done by Bitzios the same company that clearly pointed out the diversion in “Bitzios report GCLR3 construction period Burleigh Head traffic impact and improvements issued 14th October 2020 report”.
The big question is why did Council waist 15 months and spend $200k of ratepayers money on a Traffic Study which has many shortcomings, when a decision was made 1 year prior not to construct the missing link. Council was told they can achieve similar benefits in reducing travel time for motorists using this unofficial bypass, by enhancing the attractiveness of this route through reconfiguration of the existing non- compliant diversion, without completing the Tabilban missing link. “Bitzios report GCLR3 construction period Burleigh Head traffic impact and improvements issued 14th October 2020”. Perhaps a debacle of this magnitude calls for Council to put on a FULL BLOWN SHOW. Lets recap how this was staged:
1- Accept the Petition 29th January 2021
2- Stall the Petition for over 4 months.
3- Announce that a Traffic study of Koala park and the surrounding network is to be done.
4- Stall for 12 months
5- Hold Consultation information session so residents can have a pretend vote.
6- Deliver the findings and recommendation TO DO NOTHING!!! 4th October 2022.
Cost $200,000 to do nothing.
The Traffic Study which delivers three solutions, of which only one is realistic, to remove the diversion and construct the missing link. The other two options are to simply divide the community during the public consultation sessions. The other objective is convince the community that policy and procedure was followed, and that Councils conclusion was a result of the highest Engineering and ethical standard following National Benchmarks, Australian Standards and all relevant guides?? It’s just not the case. Everything was orchestrated to conclude that there is no issue with this route. Council can finalise this investigation, keep the status quo and avoid addressing any further complaints. Council spent over 40 minutes on a live video stream discussing how to prevent the residents from submitting petitions regarding this matter [Click to watch]. As far as Council is concerned this matter has been dealt with and finalised.
The Koala Park Study findings and recommendation was presented at “824 Transport & Infrastructure Committee Meeting 4 October 2022”. Council officer waving “THE STUDY” for public display during the live stream on YOUTUBE [Link to video], showing how comprehensive it is, this is the reason why it took so long.
In reality this study was done as a TOKENISTIC gesture at great expense to the ratepayers, and has many short comings. Cr Hermann Vorster asked if State Government had an interest in this route and the reply was “NO”. This is Disinformation. On the 15th September 2020 TMR installed a State controlled permanent Wireless Traffic Sensor (WTS) Identification Number: RS13 on the corner of two locally controlled streets Reserve and Tabilban Street. TMR also installed a permanent traffic monitoring camera on Ikkina Road on 21st November 2023. Evident by this installation, State Government has a vested interest in this route. Perhaps this is an indication that this is the “Unofficial Official Bypass”, and Council is never to talk about the “Unofficial Official Bypass”.
Here are just some critical omissions and disinformation statements from Bitzios Koala Park Study and Council recommendation:
1. Council hasn’t got a Road Hierarchy Map so we can assume that all streets in Koala Park can function as a Collector or Access street. DISINFORMATION. Any Engineer can identify any street and give it an appropriate functional classification. Under no circumstances all streets in Koala Park could function as a Collector, a statement such as this could only be made by an uneducated person not a traffic engineer.
73. Categorisation of roads
A local government must categorise the roads in its local government area according to the surface of the road.
2. Ikkina / Tabilban street route is a MAJOR Collector. DISINFORMATION. This route has always been a Collector, Bitzios has reclassified the route to justify the traffic volumes. Characteristics of a MAJOR Collector vs Collector are very different. Major Collector road has only consolidated lot access with no individual lot access. Not under any circumstances could Reserve Street and Ocean Parade comply with being a major collector. For the Council and their consulting firm to classify Reserve Street and Ocean Parade as part of a major collector demonstrates 1. their height of incompetents and or their lack of knowledge, or 2. their treating of the people as ignorant and feeding the people incorrect information.
3. By omission, failing to point out the diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade. Councils internal report clearly points out the diversion “Bitzios report GCLR3 construction period Burleigh Head traffic impact and improvements issued 14th October 2020”.
4. “The function of the existing Tabilban-Ikkina corridor is servicing the local residential catchment with direct property access while providing connections to the broader traffic carrying (arterial) network. It is therefore classified as a Major Collector which typically carry <10,000 veh/day. As evidenced by the traffic volume surveys, the route is approaching its environmental capacity and the existing Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) measures are aimed at discouraging through traffic and managing speeds.”
In response to above item 4.
1st Disinformation. This corridor is a Collector which should carry <3,000 vehicles/day with an inappropriate unacceptable diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade a “High-Order street to Low-Order street diversion”.
Even if the Tabilban Street route was a major collector which it is not. Because it is an older catchment <6,000VPD would be it’s limit. 10,000VPD for a major collector is for new developments as per the 2020 IPWEA. [Link to Document]
2nd Disinformation. The primary function for this route is an Unofficial Official Bypass as 86% of all traffic is through traffic or bypass traffic, Council has been treating this route as a BYPASS since the 70’s. Councils documents reveal traffic counts in 1975 to be at a peak of 3000 vehicles per day on this route. Evident by these documents this route was at environmental capacity in 1975.
• traffic that has no direct business in, or relationship with, the area under consideration. These movements are sometimes referred to as “through” traffic or “bypass” traffic.
3rd Disinformation. Every road hierarchy from the earliest to the latest has no individual lot access for a Major Collector, but here they have told you “local residential catchment with direct property access” It cannot be a Major Collector as it does not come any where near close to complying to a Major Collector especially with the one undeniable fact that the diversion onto Reserve Street and Ocean Parade exists.
4th Disinformation. Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) has never been implemented to discourage the through traffic such as one way slow points and road closures. The LATM that has been implemented has been tokenistic at best so that the people perceive that Council is doing something, when in fact what they are doing is nothing to discourage traffic, and at the ratepayer’s expense.
5. Consultation is a process for Council to manage the residents with a false sense of choice. During the consultation the residents where given 3 option to choose from:
1- Open the missing Tabilban street
2- Do nothing
3- Stop through traffic in the catchment
The study revealed that 51% of the residents wanted option 3, however it didn’t align with what council wants which is to use this route as an unofficial bypass. Therefore option 2 is preferred by Council and this is what they chose. See below from: [Koala Park Study part 1.]
So the Mayor Tom Tate received 51.82% of the votes during the last election and he calls it a victory. In contrast 51% of the residents didn’t want through traffic and Council dismissed the votes. So “Democracy” as the Mayor likes to throw that word around quite a bit, has to be questioned. The Consultation process is a big SCAM used to manage the people as they believe you operate from a place of ignorance, as you falsely put your trust in the Council. Consultations have their place but not when the issue is clearly an engineering problem, which must take into account National Benchmarks and Best Practice, and especially not for a problem that the Council created in the first place.
One other thing needs to be disclosed about the Bitzios Koala Park study is the fact that in part 2 of the Koala Park study scroll down to page 38 from the thumbnails and you will see a diagram for a collector street with bus route. This diagram has been cropped so as to not show relevant information such as traffic volumes (vehicles per day). We should all be asking the question. WHY?
Should not the people be aware of this?
The residents were so appalled another petition was submitted in June 2023 this petition calls out Council about the Diversion and Standards no holding back here:
We the undersigned respectfully petition the Council of City Of Gold Coast in response
to “824 Transport And Infrastructure Committee Meeting Minutes” and the “Bitzios
Consulting Koala Park Traffic Study” to respond and resolve the following 4 matters:
1. How did the Councils consulting Engineers “Bitzios Consulting” come to the
conclusion to upgrade the classification of the Ikinna-Tabilban route from a Collector to
a Major Collector. Which infrastructure road design guides were used? Also which
Engineering best practices and National Benchmarks/Australian Standards were
applied to this outcome?
2. How did the Councils consulting Engineers “Bitzios Consulting” come to the
conclusion that the Reserve Street diversion remains as is? Why was the diversion left
out of the study. Which best practice and national benchmarks were used as to how
council still allows traffic from a High Order Road to be diverted into Low Order adjacent
Streets only to continue back onto itself.
3. How does council consider the TOKENISTIC consultation process appropriate for an
engineering problem, when council themselves created the problem in the first place.
4. We request that Councillor Daphne McDonald reads out the specially prepared
Engineers report below, during the petition presentation. Council to resolve this issue
with the Appropriate Outcome as outlined in the report below.
Council always uses stall tactics when dealing with their own wrongdoing, so the residents were advised to submit another petition in August 2023:
Immediate removal of the Unacceptable Non-Compliant High-Order to Low-Order Reserve Street diversion.
We the undersigned respectfully petition the Council of City of Gold Coast to resolve the following:
1. During the Council’s Transport & Infrastructure Committee Meeting 824 it was recorded in clause 5.5 that the:
(i) “function of the Koala Park (Ikinna – Tabilban) route is a major collector road within the City’s transport network”, and
(ii) “The Koala Park route is performing a major collector road function, not a bypass link, and its current use is applicable to its function”.
1.2 The West section of Tabilban Street has already undergone full reconstruction to bring it to current standards.
1.3 The Reserve Street diversion within the regional urban transport network does not conform to any applicable engineering standards.
1.4 It has been a long underlying principle of Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) that local streets should only be available for the terminal ends of journeys and for local circulation, and not to be regarded as part of the regional urban transport network.
1.5 By acknowledging and accepting the road classification of the Koala Park route has changed from a Collector to a Major Collector, and as it has been recognised that the Koala Park route provides access between two State-controlled roads, Council is now legally obligated to follow Legislation and bring the balance of the Koala Park route, in its entirety, to current standards, following:
1. (i) Engineering best practice,
2. (ii) National Benchmarks, and
3. (iii) Australian Standards.
We the undersigned respectfully demand the immediate removal of the unacceptable and non- compliant High-Order to Low-Order Reserve Street diversion, and the upgrade of the entirety of the Koala Park route.
1.6 We append a Report from Rytenskild Traffic Engineering dated 11 April 2023, which the petitioner had commissioned, as further support for the above proposal, and to further highlight to Council the shortcomings within the Bitzios Report in addressing the core underlying factors affecting Ocean Parade and Reserve Street.
Council decided to reply to both petitions with more nonsense as they just do not want to take responsibility for their own wrongdoing. The responses are ridiculous to say the least, and the author of this so called report is once again Jake Matuzic Council Engineer 10th October 2023. This reply from Council is filled with so many LIES its nothing short of land fill material we will break down some of the most critical items of this reply.
Original document 836-transport-and-infrastructure-committee-10-october-2023-agenda
Lets begin:
“No new information or changes in circumstance have been raised in the new petitions.”
This is clearly a LIE, Council has been called out on all the wrongdoings which they are choosing to ignore and deny.
“It should be noted that considerable City professional resources and effort have been used to deal with the three petitions, including substantial communications with the lead petitioner, which has diverted attention away from other municipal activities. It is proposed that Council accept no further petitions on this matter unless significant new information is presented.”
Another LIE. As already stated the lead petitioner received one phone call from Council FISHING for information, asking the accuracy of the petitioners traffic counts. And one disturbing question “Why are you doing this?” That was the extent of the so called substantial communications with the lead petitioner. It’s just one LIE after another.
No serious effort was used to deal with the petitions and the real core problem of the diversion. Council has the audacity to state that we are waisting their time, Council has been avoiding this problem for 50 years. Everything Council has done to date has been TOKENISTIC, nothing more. And as was said over and over again in the course of writing this, at great expense to the ratepayer.
Council spent 45 min debating how they were going to circumvent their own bi-laws of accepting any further petitions. [Link to the video]. Councillors were also told that legal advice was given, but when the CEO was put on the spot by one of the Councillors about the legal advice he could not or would not answer, just saying legal advice was given. It seems every time the Council is contacted in regards to Reserve Street or the Tabilban Street route the red flag goes up and the list of deceptive and deceitful excuses come out.
Below are the questions the petitioners wanted answered.
Answers are from the Transport and Infrastructure department.
Author: Jake Matuzic
Responses: Petitioner
Why was the functional classification of the Koala Park route upgraded from a Collector to a Major Collector?
Which engineering best practices, guides and standards were applied?
Koala Park route has functioned as a major collector since the residential estate was developed in the 1960s.
LIE. This route has always been a Collector route, Council has reclassified it to justify the traffic volumes. All correspondence refer to this route as a Collector.
The functional classification of a road is the role it performs in the transport network based on its ‘movement’ and ‘place’ characteristics as defined by Austroads and many other road agencies and traffic engineering guides across the world.
The functional classification of this route is a Collector, however it is functioning as a Bypass and it has so since the 70’s with a diversion through Reserve Street and Ocean Parade. Council has failed to bring this route up to standard.
“While there is a high degree of compatibility between this administrative classification and the relevant functional classification, there is not always a direct relationship between them. For example, some District Roads have the characteristics of an arterial road and carry high volumes of traffic. In these cases, planners and designers should adopt the appropriate standards for the function the road performs.”
In answer to the question “no engineering best practice were used by the one simple fact that the diversion still remains”
How did Council conclude the Reserve Street diversion remains?
There is no such thing as a “Reserve Street diversion”.
LIE. It is unquestionable that the diversion exists. There could not be a better example of a diversion. The missing section of Tabilban Street which is blocked by Council with a wooden bollard is a Gazetted road.
The Engineering who states there is no diversion looks very foolish when Bitzios has pointed out the diversion.
The report states very clearly:
“Vehicles using Tabilban Street are currently diverted from Tabilban Street to Reserve Street and Ocean Parade to continue along Tabilban Street route”.