JOBS: New $4.5 million servo the first for rural township

A NEW $4.5 million service station is expected to be open for business by the end of the year in one of Ipswich’s fast-growing rural areas.

Integrated Property Projects is developing the first servo in Walloon on a previously vacant block on Queen St.

Works began in July and they are expected to be completed in November.

Pearl Investments Pty Ltd will operate the service station once it is constructed and between eight and 15 jobs be created when it opens up.

The servo will have four bowsers with eight refuelling spaces selling fuel under the Mobil brand, as well as a convenience store selling coffee and pre-made food.

Developer Grant Forde said he’d had his “eye on Ipswich for a while” and the site in Walloon was the “ideal place” for a new service station.

His grandfather owned the Walloon Hotel in the 1970s but the rural township has changed dramatically since those days.

The site of the servo is just down the road from the Waterlea housing estate, which is expected to be home to 4500 people once complete.

“I can see that growth going through the western corridor now out to Rosewood,” Mr Forde said.

“People in Walloon now have to go back on to the highway back out to Rosewood or into Ipswich to get to a service station.

“This will create great convenience for the township. They won’t have to go out on to the highway to get their mower fuel on a Saturday morning.

“It’s an ideal place for a service station. It’s at the crossroads between the two highways. With the traffic studies we’ve done, there’s some pretty impressive numbers going passed.

“The predictions with population growth in the next 20 years is pretty impressive.”

A traffic report conducted by Q Traffic found the development will have a “negligible impact on the safety or efficiency” of the surrounding road network.

It found Queen St carries between 2,000 and 3,000 vehicles a day.

Mr Forde said the development has approval to operate 24-hours a day but whether it does is not yet confirmed.

He said the convenience store would serve to “compliment rather than compete” local business in town.

“We’re not trying to compete with the IGA in town or the bakery next door,” he said.