QLD Council seizes land from developer and onsells without developing it

[Legalnaive]

Hi, I have purchased a lot and have paid for water and power to be brought in from the nearest street. Until now the council has refused to do anything about providing stormwater access or direct access from the site to a gazetted road. We have paid a few thousand for a gravel all weather access to our site.
It has been a fight the whole way to get services connected.
The neighbours have told me this land was subdivided by a developer, but the council failed to get a deposit or some other money off him to ensure he provided essential infrastructure. When he failed to pay rates and develop the land they seized the land back and sold off the lots at public auction.
The council refuses to assist with providing services because the named street we are on is considered an 'unformed road.' We also have one neighbour who thinks he is entitled to discharge his stormwater and rainwater from his roof directly onto the unformed road and this then flows back into my property flooding it as well as the road out front. It sits there for months until it evaporates and is a definite public health hazard.
The councils own planning scheme says that 'low density residential sites' should be provided with access to electricity and telecommunications infrastructure, direct access to a gazetted road and stormwater drainage at the lawful point of discharge from the site.
Should the council have sold the subdivided lots on to individuals to build on without providing services the developer was supposed to?
Where do I start looking at legislation covering this? I've been searching for a few weeks and can't seem to find anything specifically addressing this.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

The first thing to do is to get a copy of the registered plan(s) of survey for the area surrounding your lot. These should have the local roads marked on them. When the plan is registered, this constitutes a dedication of public space for raod way and that area of land becomes a state road.

The state can then pass authority of the road to the local council. Determining this can be done by checking whether the road is still a state road (if it's old enough, the plans aren't completely up to date): Queensland State-controlled roads and region maps (Department of Transport and Main Roads)

If it's not there, you can search your local Council's maps (no idea how up to date they are).

In terms of legislation, it's a little complicated. For starters, you're probably looking at the Land Act (LAND ACT 1994 around section 94) and the Land Title Act (LAND TITLE ACT 1994 around section 54).

I'd also suggest looking at the Land Title Practice Manual - Land title practice manual | Business Queensland
There's quite a few references to road, so a word search will be your best friend. But, I suggest starting with Part 21 - Plans and Associated Documents.

 

[Rod]

@Rob is in Qld, worth a call.