General News
11 May, 2026
Anger over range work
AN MP has responded to frustration vented by motorists about the time repairs are taking on the Kuranda Range Road.
The works to repair many landslips since December 2023 as a result of Cyclone Jasper and the associated heavy rainfall are not expected to be finished until the end of this year.
Ms James said she shared an update on the reconstruction works, because “I know just how important this road is to our community and how frustrating delays and traffic changes can be”.
“Please know there is a huge amount of work happening behind the scenes and crews are making steady progress on this major project,” she wrote on her Facebook post.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads is responsible for the works and, to date, crews have repaired 25 geotechnical sites on Kuranda Range Road, with six sites currently under construction and more than 15 additional sites planned for works this year.
“I’ll continue to keep the community updated as works progress. Thanks for your ongoing patience. I know it’s not easy, but this work is critical to making the road safer and more reliable for everyone,” Ms James wrote.
But her update caused a swift reaction from locals who think the works are just taking too long.
“Having travelled overseas, I can tell you that if this same situation was in China, the Kuranda Range would have not only been completely fixed from top to bottom but have been upgraded to a dual carriageway and done so in three weeks with remediation and upgrade works carried 24 hours per day,” one man wrote.
“All the hot air about how much progress is being made on the Kuranda Range falls on deaf ears when I compare it to the expedited efficiency of what I have seen overseas.”
“Thanks for the update Bree but seriously it’s now 30 months since this happened. There’s just no excuses that justify this amount of time to fix a road,” another man posted.
“Not to mention this timeline would be unheard of if it was closer to Brisbane. It’s a bloody joke ... it’s one of the main highways to the Tablelands,” a woman responded.
“That’s not an update. You told us nothing. There is only one section that needs to be fixed, the big slide at the lookout. Focus all efforts on that, then get out of there and give us our road back,” one man said.
“It only took five years for the pioneers to make the entire railway line from Cairns to Kuranda, hacking and blasting through where there was nothing before,” another man commented.
“It’s 135 years now since that was completed and we are getting this work done at a snail’s pace.
“Seeing how they constructed the entire Kuranda railroad by hand in five years, including 55 bridges and 15 tunnels, and this road repair has been 2.5 years to fill a couple of damaged sections, it’s truly a pathetic effort,” another person wrote.
Others also commented on the huge cost of traffic control.
