We see them everywhere — towns along highways that seemingly pop up overnight. So what does it really take to build a town from scratch?
Ray Klane had seen enough in his construction and development career to know that forking out a couple of million dollars for two roadside paddocks was a good investment.
But Mr Klane saw potential in the area as the nearest major centres of Ipswich and Toowoomba were at least a 40-minute drive away. Porters Plainland Hotel general manager Mel Porter, a third-generation hotelier, said a notorious section of the highway had become a high-crash zone.She recalled a 1997 incident in which members of a family were killed when their car crashed into a petrol tanker while pulling onto the highway.
He said parent company Maddison Ridge, which has owners based in south-east Queensland and the UK, bought about 20 hectares of what was "effectively a cow paddock" in about 2007. But a decade on, 600-square-metre blocks are now going for between $330,000 and $350,000 and homes are costing about $380,000 to build.Plainland's population has almost doubled from 2,445 in 2006 to an estimated 4,441 this year.Lockyer Valley Regional Council's group manager of community and regional prosperity, Amanda Pugh, said the town's population growth rate of 4.32 per cent, or 184 new residents a year, was the highest it had been.
Mrs Crosato said as a mum with young children, she was generally happy with the services in the town.Plainland has two medical centres — Lockyer Doctors, which expanded into the town in 2006, and Curtis Medical which opened its practice there in 2008.
Woolworths Plainland Crossing Development Porters Plainland Hotel Schulte's Meat Tavern Aldi Mcdonald's Bunnings Housing Lockyer Valley Regional Council Shopping Centre Coles Ray Klane Maddison Ridge Oliver Crosato Central Church Plainland Amanda Pugh
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