DHA DEVELOPMENT

REGARDING the DHA development of the Old Rifle Range.

Being one of the longest living members of the community in the vicinity of the former rifle range, it is with great regret that after 41 years of blissful living it appears that our wonderful lifestyle is about to come to an end.

Defence Housing Australia has indicated that its application for a subdivision of the rifle range area, to the extent of 344 housing blocks, is about to be submitted to the Toowoomba Regional Council.

When we built here access was via a narrow strip of bitumen that weaved its way around the side of Mt Lofty. The first morning here we awoke to observe several kangaroos and wallabies grazing at our backyard fence and there was nothing but thick bushland beyond that.

I sympathise with those who were living, or have subsequently moved to Martini St as their view is about to be robbed from them even though they probably thought, like us, that the rifle range would always be there.

But I guess that this can be put down to progress as views can come and go, as we have experienced at our home on Rifle Range Rd.

My main objection to the DHA development is the number of houses that are proposed.

The 344 houses exceeds the number that are presently in existence in the area bounded by Stewart St, Henry St and Rifle Range Rd, and although Rifle Range Rd was upgraded when it was planned that a large number of town houses would be built at the top of the hill (this development fortunately fell through) this road is now near or at its capacity, especially near Mt Lofty Hospital.

We would welcome members of the defence force into our community. The problem lies in the number of new houses. DHA has only allowed access to the development by Rifle Range Rd or Henry St and this will result in a threefold increase in the number of vehicles passing our property, making it impossible to access the road during peak times.

If they were to reduce the number of houses to about 100 it may be possible to absorb them into our community without too many disruptions to both them and us.

W.A. PATTERSON, Toowoomba