A $500-million housing estate near Ipswich is expected to create thousands of jobs and house 4,000 Queenslanders by 2014.

Fourteen hundred homes are being built at the Mountview estate in Redbank Plains in the fastest growing region in Australia.

Graham Osborne reports.

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TRANSCRIPT

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale says new estates like Mountview help to solve housing problems and create jobs.

Paul Pisasale, Ipswich Mayor: “Thousands of jobs, what we’ve got planned for the whole of the Ipswich corridor, just in our area probably one hundred thousand jobs over the next twelve months.”

The new housing estate should prove to be a boon for Redbank Plains residents, with plans for new infrastructure in the pipeline.

David Keir, MD Devine Communities: “There’s about a four-thousand square metre retail centre, attached to that there’s a service station, a local tavern for the area in addition to obviously the child care centre which will support some of the young families in the area as well.”

A new train station adjoining the estate is expected to be completed by 2015.

The proposed name for the new station is Redbank Plains South, the second of three new links to the Ipswich line.

Developers say there’s been minimal effects to the local environment.

David Keir, MD Devine Communities: “Where possible we’ve looked to retain as many onsite trees as we can and certainly some of the areas that are heavily treed, we’ve retained within open space and parkland.”

The first houses are near completion at Mountview, with half of the new homes expected to be occupied within the next three years.

Graham Osborne, QUT News