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The Honourable Brent Mickelberg MP,

I write to you as a deeply concerned ratepayer calling for professional and legal accountability from the Gold Coast City Council. Koala Park in Burleigh Heads and surrounding area stands as the most glaring example of the Council’s prolonged inaction and administrative failure. Council records reveal that as early as 1975, this route in question was already carrying 3,000 vehicles per day—clearly operating as an unofficial bypass relative to the population at the time. Today, traffic volumes have surged to as high as 15,000 vehicles daily. To call this level of traffic on local residential streets unacceptable would be an understatement. The Council’s consistent failure—over more than five decades—to appropriately manage the traffic impacts in this area is not only negligent, it now borders on systemic maladministration.

You may or may not be aware, that on the 15th of 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 these installations, Queensland State Government has a vested interest in this route.

Council’s most recent justification for continued inaction is outlined in the 824 Transport and Infrastructure Committee Meeting held Tuesday 4 October 2022, from which the following excerpt is taken:

Excerpt from this document:
“A comprehensive traffic study, that included community consultation, was subsequently undertaken that identified the existing east-west through route was essential to the operation of the wider road network and that the petition proposition cannot be supported as it:
• Will induce more through traffic use of the Koala Park residential area
• Will reduce local residential amenity
• Will impact on the local environment
• Will come with a high financial cost that does not provide a value for money outcome for ratepayers
• Does not have the support of the wider community.”

In this statement, Council officially acknowledges and identifies that the route functions as a through route — otherwise known as a bypass route. This acknowledgment has significant engineering and legal implications, as noted by former Director of Transport and Infrastructure Alton Twine:

Quote:

“If we identify it, then we are obligated to bring it up to standard.”

This admission invokes a clear duty of care. Once identified as a functional through-route, the infrastructure must be assessed, upgraded, and maintained in accordance with applicable engineering standards, including those prescribed in the Austroads Guide to Road Design, the Queensland Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, and the Austroads Guide to Traffic Management Part 8: Local Area Traffic Management, following all National and International Benchmarks and Best Practice. Failure to do so exposes Council to potential legal liability for foreseeable harm — including traffic collisions, pedestrian injuries, amenity loss, and property impacts all which have been well-documented and worsening.

The five points are based entirely on assumptions and have no basis in fact:

1. Traffic growth is not hypothetical—it is already happening, as clearly documented on koalaparkbypass.com.

2. You cannot reduce amenities where none exist. Ocean Parade and Reserve Street have zero amenities, and remains unchanged.

3. Queensland’s Transport Infrastructure Act 1994, Chapter 3, Sections 9 and 9A, clearly outlines the state’s legal obligations to maintain and manage transport infrastructure responsibly.

4. This proposal seeks to restore what was unjustly taken from the community, improving liveability and reinstating residents’ social and economic wellbeing.

5. A majority—51% of local residents—voted against through traffic. This is not opinion; it is a documented fact.

Council’s reliance on a route that diverts through-traffic via Ocean Parade and Reserve Street — instead of formalising the entirety of Tabilban Street — is even more alarming.

This decision is illogical, unsafe, and in breach of sound traffic planning principles. Ocean Parade and Reserve Street are not Tabilban Street, and they are most certainly not built to accommodate such levels of traffic.

Excerpt from this document:
“Tabilban Street has a western and eastern section with each section rising steeply towards a crest, leaving about 110 metres of unformed road reserve in the centre (refer to Figure 2). Consequently, Ocean Parade and Reserve Street are used to link the two sections of Tabilban Street.”

This excerpt is a clear admission: Council is deliberately diverting bypass traffic through residential access streets for over 50 years instead of addressing the obvious: Tabilban Street exists in full, and the unformed section is a result of inaction — not lack of road reserve.. These streets are not designed for such volumes or heavy vehicle classifications. This directly contravenes Austroads guidelines, National Benchmarks and Best Practice which clearly distinguish between the function and capacity of local access streets versus collector or sub-arterial roads. Local access streets should carry no more than 750 vehicles per day as per the Gold Coast City Plan. Bypass routes of the kind being enforced in Koala Park should be formally constructed and classified — not improvised through residential detours and diversions. A bypass (diversion) within a bypass using local residential streets.

The situation is further compounded by the traffic study’s own damning statistic:

“86% of peak-hour traffic” along the Ikkina–Tabilban–Reserve–Ocean Parade–Tabilban route is through traffic — in other words, being used as an unofficial bypass.

This figure should have triggered an immediate engineering response. Instead, Council continues to ignore this key performance indicator while residents suffer elevated noise pollution, safety hazards, environmental degradation, and rising exposure to traffic conflicts — all of which are foreseeable and legally actionable under both tort law and the Local Government Act 2009.

What is perhaps most disturbing is that this deeply flawed study — funded with $200,000 of ratepayer money — is now being used to suppress valid community concerns. The report lacks objectivity, fails to comply with accepted engineering rigour, and includes numerous assumptions unsupported by real-world observations and appears to be nothing more than a carefully worded smokescreen –– riddled with inconsistencies and lacking the credibility of a true traffic engineering document. It’s not a traffic solution; it’s an expensive excuse for inaction. Much of its content reads as political justification masquerading as technical analysis. This meets the definition of disinformation, and the reliance on such material in decision-making processes may constitute malfeasance or maladministration under Queensland integrity frameworks.

Under both common law and legislation, including the Transport Infrastructure Act 1994, Council holds a legal duty to:

• Ensure public infrastructure is fit for purpose

• Base decisions on expert, evidence-backed analysis

• Avoid foreseeable harm through inaction

• Maintain transparency and public trust in process

The current situation violates these principles on every front.

It is my will that this matter be escalated for formal investigation by your department.

All supporting documentation, including statutory references, traffic data, and engineering commentary, is publicly available at:
https://koalaparkbypass.com

I await your response and expect this matter to finally receive the legal and engineering scrutiny it demands.

Regards.
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