Resilience and connectivity prioritised in rebuild of critical border link
The Mount Lindesay Highway is a vital transport corridor, linking Brisbane, Beaudesert and the Queensland-New South Wales border.
It serves as an essential lifeline for the local Scenic Rim community, supporting freight movements, inter-regional travel, and emergency services access, as well as providing a scenic route through the region’s unique sloping and heavily vegetated terrain.
However, the highway’s mountainous stretches leaves it vulnerable to severe weather events, which have presented complex challenges for maintaining its safety and functionality.
Flooding events in 2022 caused significant damage across more than 20 sites on the highway.
The rugged, challenging terrain of the Beaudesert to Border stretch, including landslips, road pavement deterioration, culvert damage, and embankment failures at Palen Creek, made recovery efforts especially complex.
Enter Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) who, guided by a commitment to building back better, embarked on extensive reconstruction works beginning with emergency repairs immediately after the 2022 floods and continuing systematically over two years.
With joint Commonwealth-state funding under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA), this major project focused on embedding resilience and sustainability into the highway’s rebuild.
Sophisticated rehabilitation measures were planned and executed to stabilise the extensively damaged embankments.
The works included installing more than 800 metres of soil nails, using approximately 480 tonnes of rock in gabion baskets, and incorporating about 4400 tonnes of fill material into the embankment reconstruction.
Additionally, drainage improvements were delivered along a five-kilometre stretch in the area most impacted by the floods, including upgraded culvert inlets and concrete table drains designed to redirect stormwater away from roads during heavy rain events.
Stringent measures were implemented during the reconstruction to protect the area’s delicate ecosystem, including ensuring suitable sediment control and maintaining fish passageways in the culvert zones while preventing debris from reaching downstream waterways.
Completed in September 2025, the renewed highway has transformed a critical transport corridor into one that is safer, more sustainable, and better equipped to endure future severe weather events.
This reconstruction project not only restored connectivity for Scenic Rim’s locals and visitors alike, but has also safeguarded critical infrastructure for economic, social, and interstate needs.
The Mount Lindesay Highway recovery works showcase DRFA’s value in delivering community-driven, long-term solutions through disaster recovery funding.
By addressing vulnerabilities and focusing on resilience, the works highlight the Queensland Government’s commitment to ensuring vital infrastructure stands stronger for future challenges.
