David Bright used to stand at his back fence and feed cattle with his grandkids, but now he watches bulldozers clearing the land for a major housing estate.
The buzz of machinery and nail guns fills the air at the job site next door, less than a kilometre from the ocean down the street.
The coastal suburbs of Bundaberg, nearly five hours' drive north of Brisbane, are experiencing unprecedented growth with thousands of residential lots and retirement dwellings under construction.
Across the road from Mr Bright's Innes Park home, a Proposed Development sign recently popped up on a former sugarcane and melon farm detailing a 113-lot residential subdivision by Suosaari Investments Pty Ltd.
The sign shows it would include a neighbourhood activity centre, green spaces and more than a dozen lots between 150 and 224 square metres — which is smaller than the average floor size of a new home in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
For comparison, the total playing area of a standard tennis court is approximately 260m2.
Directly beside that project is another proposed subdivision for 384 residential lots by Moorehead Family Developments PTY LTD as part of the Headlands Estate.
Bundaberg Regional Council's Division 5 councillor Larine Statham-Blair said every development application was assessed on its own merits against the planning scheme and state legislation, and submissions from the public.
"The issue is that we need a diversity of different housing types and lot sizes," she said.
Master-planned communities
Construction has started on a $1.1 billion master-planned community at Coral Cove, which has promised up to 1,200 residential lots of between 375m2 to 1000m2.
DevCore Property Group is behind the project, which currently has approval for 400 lots and has submitted plans for the next stage of 600 lots to the Bundaberg Regional Council.
It is the second development of its kind in the region, with a $2 billion master-planned community under construction at Elliot Heads that will cater for approximately 2,600 dwellings.
While Mr Bright said he was sad to see the landscape changing around his home, he understood the reason behind it.
"I guess we're always sad about losing something that we appreciated but at the end of the day … people have got to live somewhere," he said.
Infrastructure needs and services
Bargara Progress Association president Jon Belmonte said the current infrastructure and services, education, health and aged care were not meeting the community's needs.
He said there was a desperate need for a new police station as well as fire and ambulance facilities.
"We do need urban sprawl, but we need all the capacities, services, and assistance that protect and support and undergird that."
The Queensland government has provided $52 million from its Residential Activation Fund to deliver trunk infrastructure including major road, water and sewer upgrades in the Bundaberg region.
"It needs a three-prong approach from state, federal and council to ensure that we're all working together so that services and infrastructure meet the demands that we have in our community," Cr Statham-Blair said.
Traffic issues
Mr Bright said traffic had already increased significantly on the two main roads into Innes Park, and he questioned whether the infrastructure could cope with the population boom.
"The road is constantly busy now in front of us," he said.
"I do have concerns about getting onto Elliot Heads Road … or off Back Windermere Road to get onto FE Walker Street to go into town," he said.
As he soaks up the area's relaxed beachside lifestyle with large parks and calm water inlets to swim, Mr Bright hopes that remains true as more people move to the region.
"A lot of people come down to the estuary on the weekend, especially in summer," he said.
"It's a great place to bring the kids.
"Now, it won't be the new Sunshine Coast in terms of high-rises, but it will be the new Sunshine Coast in terms of residential houses."
