A young couple have been left speechless after finding out by an email that their newly built home will be demolished to make way for a highway.
Charmaine and James Jackson, who have two young sons, received the email on Monday informing them that their ‘dream home’ at Griffin, north of Brisbane, will be bulldozed as part of the Bruce Highway upgrade.
The young parents only moved into the newly-built $600,000 home on September 1.
‘I haven’t been able to stop feeling sick since I got the email,’ Ms Jackson, 29, a stay-at-home-mum told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We thought we’d be in this house until our kids left home.’
The Jacksons are one of 25 families set to see their homes in the Aspire development in Griffin knocked down as part of $2.1billion upgrades to the Bruce Highway.
Charmaine and James Jackson, who have two young sons, received an email on Monday informing them that their ‘dream home’ at Griffin, north of Brisbane, will pulled down as part of the Bruce Highway upgrade
The couple paid about $600,000 for house and land and only moved into the newly-built home on September 1 this year
Half of the homes earmarked for wrecking are newly-built and the other half are still under construction.
‘I’ve met a few of the owners in person … everyone is just really gutted and scared about what’s going to happen to them,’ Mrs Jackson said.
Mr Jackson said the Queensland government planning disaster is certain to cost the home-owners hundreds of thousands of dollars.
‘The amount we all paid for land and houses to be built, if we have to rebuild our houses now, there’s no way the same amount of money would cover it,’ said Mr Jackson, a 30 year old software engineer.
‘Where are we going to go? We’re in a housing crisis, how can they be talking about knocking down our house?’
Mr Jackson (right) said what makes him most angry is the loss of their new home was ‘an avoidable problem’. Pictured, Charmaine and James Jackson
‘We’re in a housing crisis, how can they be talking about knocking down our house?’ said a stunned Mr Jackson
The couple paid about $600,000 for the land and construction of their new four bedroom home, which was designed for their two young sons, Theo 4, and Elliott 1.
‘The thought of having to pack up our dream home, our first home, when we have just arrived, it’s devastating,’ Mrs Jackson said.
‘This is our dream home, it’s not extravagant but we picked everything out, we picked the colours and the layout.
‘The thought of selling it and it becoming a rental until it’s demolished, it makes me burst into tears thinking about someone renting the bedrooms we picked for our little boys.
The Jacksons are one of 25 families set to see their homes in the Aspire development in Griffin bulldozed to as part of $2.1billion upgrades to the Bruce Highway
‘The emotions are really weird, I am going from bursting into tears to feeling angry numb, like this can’t really be happening to us.’
None of the affected families have been given a definite time frame – they just know their new homes will be demolished.
Mr Jackson slammed the impacts on the young home-owners as a massive planning failure.
‘People who are planning this should have been able to communicate to people who approved the land titles, this just shouldn’t have happened,’ he said.
‘This was an avoidable problem, that’s what makes me the the most angry.
‘If we knew this was going to happen we wouldn’t have chosen to buy here.’
None of the families know when the bulldozers will be called in.
‘It could be next month or in the next six months, it could be two years or 10 years, it depends on when they receive funding [for the next stage],’ Mr Jackson said.
Mrs Jackson said after years of saving they believed they were free of rental homes.
Families set to see their homes in the Aspire development in Griffin bulldozed to as part of $2.1billion upgrades to the Bruce Highway
‘We rented for six years, we saved and saved and thought we were finally free of rent and rental inspections.
Another young dad only found out his new home in the same development would be demolished hours after collecting the keys to the house.
Anil Konda, a father of four, received an urgent government email asking him to call on Monday, the ABC reported.
He had waited 11 months for his family’s new home to be built.
‘Last week my kids picked the colours, my son and my daughter picked the colours … I was planning to start the work today, paint the rooms, fix some furniture.’
When he called the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) after they contacted him about its ‘land requirement’, he feared losing part of his block.
But he was told the works meant he’d lose his ‘entire house’ within two or three years.
Scott Searle, general manager of Aspire developer Fairland Group Pty Ltd confirmed his company followed all government guidelines and its approvals process.
According to the Queensland government future traffic forecasts indicate traffic levels travelling between the Moreton Bay Region and north Brisbane each day will increase by around 50 per cent by 2041.
‘Without additional capacity from future upgrades, this vital section of the National Highway will be heavily congested for longer periods, with travel times significantly increasing for motorists,’ the TMR website says.
TMR Minister Mark Bailey claimed residents in the planning area for the Gateway Motorway and Bruce Highway Upgrades project were informed as quickly as possible, adding the project was in its ‘very early planning stages’.
He said affected residents get ‘fair value and compensation’ for their properties but that ‘it’s never a good process’.
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