Ratepayers foot views bill
Ambitious project to cost $350k
PLANS to revitalise historic lookouts at Picnic Point will come with quite the price tag.
Toowoomba Regional Council tender documents reveal the exact cost for the ambitious project announced last year.
In total, ratepayers will fork out $350,000, according to a budget estimate in the documents.
The budget breakdown covers only the Tobruk Memorial Drive Lookout section of the project, with new designs revealing the council’s plans to build a concrete pier jutting out of the escarpment at the site.
The same documents also detail the council’s vision for the Bob Dodd Lookout section of the project.
Sketches show how a wooden walkway will be built at the lookout, which has been closed for the past two years.
The council stated at its announcement of the plans last year that residents would have to wait until “mid-2018” before the initial stages of the project would be completed.
The winning concept designs were inspired by Toowoomba’s indigenous history.
Brisbane-based firm ARUP won a Toowoomba Regional Council competition to produce ambitious designs to transform the site into a tourism hot-spot.
The company said at the time the project would be constructed in a way that would tell stories, take you on a journey while also paying homage to indigenous culture of the region.
“We will have some way of finding strategies to educate people about the different histories that came together at these sites,” ARUP’s Alexandra Brown said at the time.