A farm animal sanctuary north of Brisbane has celebrated victory a year after the Department of Transport and Main Roads issued an ultimatum: pay $300,000 for a road upgrade or not be allowed to have visitors and build new facilities.
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A change.org petition last year asking the then-Planning Minister Jackie Trad and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey to find a way that visitor access to Farm Animal Rescue (FAR) could be maintained without the charity paying for the road upgrade, attracted more than 43,500 signatures.
When the Labor Party was re-elected in the state election last year, the sanctuary in Dayboro was the first to benefit from the charity infrastructure fund, which paid for the road upgrade and led to plans for a new adoption barn and visitor program being approved.
The new facilities were officially opened by local MP Nikki Boyd on Sunday, with the adoption barn expected to allow the sanctuary to increase the number of farm animals it can rescue by 400 per cent during the next year and the visitor program was hoped to attract 40 guests every two weeks.
FAR president Brad King said last year he wasn't sure he would ever see the new facilities open.
"I was quietly confident, but a lot of the time it looked like it wasn’t going to come together," he said.
"But we had no intention of giving up and, for us, paying for it (road upgrade) was never an option because we didn't have enough money."
TMR had demanded the sanctuary pay for a 100-metre overtaking lane on Dayboro Road, to allow cars to safely overtake vehicles wanting to turn right across oncoming traffic and into the sanctuary.
"It was a difficult journey," Mr King said.
“In some ways it was good, because it got us publicity that we otherwise wouldn’t have got, but it has certainly been distracting during the past year.
"We were concerned it was going to be difficult to maintain our supporter base, but they have stuck with us."
The new facilities were paid for by a grant that the sanctuary was given in 2016.
The adoption barn provided new quarantine and rehabilitation facilities and the expanded visitor program allowed more people to learn about the animals and what they have been through.
"We appreciate the incredible amount of support we got," Mr King said.
"To the people who signed the petition, without those signatures I believe we wouldn’t have been heard.
"The power of the people got us onto the agenda and the political parties did the right thing because of that support - it was a perfect example of democracy at work."
FAR houses about 65 rescued farm animals that were neglected, abused or destined for slaughter, with supporters able to sponsor individual animals.
In July 2017, Mr King told Fairfax Media he had been left confused and angered by TMR's demands, with only a handful of daily visitors coming to the sanctuary.
"The traffic volumes turning in to the sanctuary are insignificant and there are much bigger issues to deal with regarding road safety - we are confused why they (TMR) are pushing this so hard," he said.
The sanctuary had been forced to lodge a development application with the council, to become classified as a tourist facility due to the numbers of visitors.
The Queensland government then became involved to assess the possible state impact, which included TMR analysing whether the Dayboro Road entrance was suitable for regular daily visitors.
In November, Pine Rivers MP Nikki Boyd promised the sanctuary would be the first to benefit from a planned charity infrastructure fund, if Labor was re-elected at the state election.
The new multimillion-dollar state-wide fund operates through the Department of Transport and Main Roads, with money to be allocated to charities on a case-by-case basis.
Mr King said at the time that volunteers were "absolutely delighted" by the news that a potential solution had been found, after visitors were banned in October.
