{"id":13949,"date":"2026-05-19T03:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13949\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T03:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:15:21","slug":"central-queensland-ambulance-drama-prompts-push-for-no-name-roads-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13949\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Queensland ambulance drama prompts push for no-name roads investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Chris Stehbens spied an ambulance driving up and down his road with lights and sirens on during a Triple Zero (000) emergency, he was not surprised they could not find the right address.<\/p>\n

It was because the unnamed road, which serves about 10 properties, does not appear on any official map.<\/p>\n

“They were obviously lost,” Mr Stehbens said.<\/p>\n

“We’re not even on the road register. We don’t exist.”<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old knew one of his neighbours was gravely ill at the end of the 1 kilometre bitumen stretch, so he rushed out to the road to point the paramedics in the right direction.<\/p>\n

However, the address confusion did not end there as paramedics then had to call for urgent assistance from the Queensland Fire Department (QFD) to extricate the man from his high-block house.<\/p>\n

“They couldn’t find the address either,” Mr Stehbens said about the QFD response.<\/p>\n

“So I had to assist both of them to find out where they had to go.”<\/p>\n

\"Queensland<\/p>\n

The Queensland Ambulance Service says its crews use road mapping from authorities such as local councils. (Supplied: Queensland Ambulance Service)<\/p>\n

Mr Stehbens said the road, just west of Yeppoon in central Queensland, was technically an easement in a subdivision, so all 10 properties fell under the same address.<\/p>\n

A Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokesperson confirmed the late December incident.<\/p>\n

They said emergency services used a mapping service that relied on information sourced from authorities such as local councils.<\/p>\n

Mr Stehbens said he believed his local government, the Livingstone Shire Council, should now take over responsibility for the road, which is owned and maintained by property owners.<\/p>\n

“My firm belief is there’s been a grave oversight by the local council in how this has all come about and they’ve allowed too many addresses,” he said.\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Stehbens wants an investigation into the situation following the emergency services drama. (ABC Capricornia: Frazer Pearce)<\/p>\n

Mr Stehbens said generally an easement was an access way through one property to another.<\/p>\n

“But in this instance, we’ve got about 10 different addresses on this one easement. It’s totally unacceptable,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It should never have been allowed to happen.”<\/p>\n

Mr Stehbens said he paid about $5,000 a year in rates but did not have access to town water, sewerage or rubbish collection.<\/p>\n

“It’s sweet little deal for council with about 10 properties paying rates and they don’t even maintain a road for us.”<\/p>\n

Confusion leads to ‘life and death’ situations<\/p>\n

Mr Stehbens has raised the issue with Livingstone Shire Councillor Glenda Mather, who said obscure rural addresses could lead to a “life and death situation”.<\/p>\n

She said she now intended to call for a council investigation into the extent of no-name easement roads across the shire.<\/p>\n

She suspects it is a hidden problem affecting many properties, not just in Livingstone, but in regions across rural Australia.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The unnamed rural road in central Queensland leads to about 10 properties. (ABC Capricornia: Frazer Pearce)<\/p>\n

Cr Mather said she supported council taking control of the Limestone Creek Road easement but added it would need to be assessed to ensure it was up to standard.<\/p>\n

She said bringing it up to scratch could be expensive and residents could have to wear the cost.<\/p>\n

Cr Mather supported measures to make it easier for properties to be identified by emergency services.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of work to be done in that area,” she said.<\/p>\n

The QAS said the free national Emergency+ mobile app, developed by Australian emergency services, allowed users to accurately communicate their location through smart phone GPS functionality.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Adam Belot says council will consider looking into the matter. (Supplied: Livingstone Shire Council)<\/p>\n

Residents could also provide location details to QAS to supplement local council data by completing an online form.<\/p>\n

Livingstone Mayor Adam Belot said at this stage there was no confirmed estimate of how many properties might be affected.<\/p>\n

“Property owners are generally responsible for ensuring their property is clearly identifiable, including displaying property numbers to assist emergency services,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Council will consider any formal applications should they be submitted.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Chris Stehbens spied an ambulance driving up and down his road with lights and sirens on during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,14301,14304,14300,1774,14298,14303,13338,13709,14299,14302,4459,14297],"class_list":["post-13949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-call-for-urgent-assistance","tag-easements","tag-livingstone-shire-council","tag-local-government","tag-medical-emergency","tag-no-name-roads","tag-queensland-ambulance-service","tag-queensland-fire-department","tag-residential-address","tag-road-upgrades","tag-triple-zero","tag-unnamed-roads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}