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.
He wasn't looking to farm the land, but he was intending to sow the seeds of growth in the hope that others would follow his lead.
His plan was to build a shopping centre that would catch the eyes of motorists as they passed through the tiny town of Plainland on the adjacent Warrego Highway — the main thoroughfare between Brisbane and Toowoomba.
When Mr Klane bought the paddocks in 2002 — one on each side of Gehrke Road, which intersects the highway — Plainland, located 75 kilometres west of Brisbane, consisted of a pub, a butcher's shop, an old service station and a fruit shop.
He bought the first two-hectare block on the eastern side for between $400,000 and $450,000.
The land had council approval to build a supermarket but the plot wasn't large enough for Mr Klane's plans.
So, he bought the second 22-hectare block on the western side of Gehrke Road for about $1,450,000.
It featured an old weatherboard home and "a lot of grass".
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.
"We know there are a lot of people who live out here and it is not visible if you just drive past on the highway," he said.
An historic photo of Porters Plainland Hotel before it was moved back from the highway.
This Shell service station at Plainland has since been replaced by a major travel centre.
A fruit shop and nursery at Plainland in the 1980s has been replaced with a Mobil service station.
In the mid-1990s, Plainland's central hub consisted of a pub, service station, fruit shop and butcher's.
Plainland Plaza opened before construction of the Warrego Highway overpass was completed.
Mr Klane already had a relationship with grocery retailer Woolworths through previous shopping centre developments, including at Beenleigh and Marsden, in south-east Queensland.
"We went to Woolworths once we had the site secured," Mr Klane, now 77, said.
But the supermarket giant resisted becoming his vital anchor tenant.
Mr Klane said the lack of a safe connection between the southern and northern sides of the highway made his proposal unviable.
Highway black spot
Plainland residents had long been lobbying for an overpass to be built across the highway that divided the township.
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.
Ms Porter said she was away at boarding school that night but her mother was at their family home about 800 metres away.
"Mum heard the explosion, [she said] you could just feel the heat," Ms Porter said.
There were more crashes before federal funding to build an overpass was allocated in the 2003/2004 financial year.
Mr Klane said the commitment to build the overpass was enough for Woolworths to change its mind.
He recalled meeting a Woolworths property manager at the site on Melbourne Cup Day in 2003 before "we nutted out the deal at the Porters Hotel … over a lunch".
The Woolworths store opened at Plainland Plaza in December 2005.
Tough start
But the momentum for more business and residential development that Mr Klane had hoped would follow, was "slow going" for a few years.
His smaller block across the road remained vacant until he sold it to the developers of the Plainland Crossing residential and commercial estate for about $900,000 in about 2007.
"I've got no regrets about that because as far as retail [goes], the more you get into one area, the more successful the area is going to be," he said.
"It was the right move because I would have most probably not developed that."
Plainland Crossing development manager Joe Gorman said the early years of his company's foray were hard yards too.
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.
Maddison Ridge had been drawn to Plainland for a few reasons, including its position between Ipswich and Toowoomba.
Initial applications were submitted for Plainland Crossing, a residential development of about 180 lots and about 10 hectares of commercial land.
Mr Gorman recalled pointing out the 450-square-metre and 600-square-metre residential blocks to Lockyer Valley councillors during a site tour in 2013, shortly before construction began.
"There was certainly a feeling or feedback there that was very small," he said.
Mr Gorman said the development was "treading water" after its launch with only 20 or so land sales a year.
"So it was really grit your teeth and keep going and believing in the vision of the project," he said.
Momentum grows
In 2014, nine years after the Woolworths shopping centre opened, land and house sales were still sluggish at Plainland Crossing, where 600-square-metre lots could be snapped up for $139,000.
Mr Gorman said houses were being built for about $220,000.
"There was slow price appreciation over the next five years but the land was still very affordable and well-discounted from comparable product closer to Brisbane," he said.
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.
Mr Gorman said sales had lifted to a rate of 50 or 60 lots a year.
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.
And there are a few reasons for that.
Mr Gorman said a "critical mass" of development started to emerge in Plainland Crossing three or four years after lots went on sale.
McDonald's opened a restaurant in 2017 while Aldi and Bunnings opened stores in 2021.
"There was an element of build it and they will come," Mr Gorman said.
The residential sales rate lifted to a more viable level before he said the COVID pandemic flipped the development "on its head".
"The COVID period really took it another quantum level in terms of market demand to the point where, in the final stages of the project, we are probably over-subscribed for sales," Mr Gorman said.
He said the challenge had shifted from establishing a market early in the project to being able to deliver on a budget that could be controlled within a certain time frame.
"It's a symptom of the project's success but it is also a reflection of the post-COVID construction industry," he said.
Moving in
Plainland Crossing resident Oliver Crosato, who grew up north of Toowoomba at Crows Nest, recalled being surprised when he first saw the Woolworths supermarket pop up in a paddock.
"Driving to Brisbane, it [Plainland] was sort of something you would drive through," he said.
He and wife Taylah Crosato have been renting a four-bedroom home on a block slightly larger than 500 square metres for $600 a week since January last year.
They and children Abigail, 3, and Teddy, nine months, were the home's first residents.
They moved from Brisbane after Mr Crosato, 33, took up a role as founding pastor of Central Church Plainland.
"When we moved there was a lot of competition for houses for rent so we were just very grateful to find this place," Mr Crosato said.
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.
Both centres started with one GP each, but to cater for the town's growing population, Lockyer Doctors now has six full-time equivalent GPs and Curtis Medical has seven GPs.
However, Mrs Crosato said she was a bit worried that the nearest hospital was more than half an hour away in Ipswich.
"The only thing is it is like a 35–40-minute drive when you are giving birth, which is not fun," she said.
Ms Pugh said the council was advocating for a regional hospital to be built at Plainland.
Over the back fence
Lifelong Plainland resident Peter Scheiwe, 55, said he had watched the Plainland Crossing development grow from the nearby property where he and his 11 siblings were raised.
He said he was surprised to see the development of urban lots.
"You think, 'How is this going to take off?'," Mr Scheiwe said.
He said his 24-hectare property was adjoined by the Plainland Plaza and Sophia College after neighbouring farmers sold up.
"We've got to that stage now where we just have to accept what's going on and … we find it's good to have shopping centres and shops around," he said.
Ms Pugh said it was important to strike a balance that met most residents' needs, and she recognised there were residents who wanted larger residential lots.
"But not everybody wants a pony, so we need to ensure that we can cater for the growth that's reflective of community aspirations," she said.
Mr Klane, who has retired to Noosa, said his company had for the past two years been working with the council on an application to expand the plaza to include a Coles supermarket as well as other stores.
He said the intention was to create a town centre for Plainland.
"It was a big step I suppose at the time to spend all the money and build a supermarket here but from past experience I knew that it would work and it's doing quite well," he said.