Cape York Region Package Stage 2

The Cape York Region Package Stage 2 is a program of works to deliver infrastructure upgrades on the Cape York Peninsula between 2019-20 and 2023-25.

Benefits

• Improves network resilience
• Improves network efficiency
• Reduces travel time
• Reduces maintenance
• Improves safety
• Contributes to regional growth

Key features

Cape York Region Package Stage 2 includes:

• $275.63 million to progressively seal priority sections of the Peninsula Developmental Road
• $47.5 million to progressively seal priority sections of community access roads.

Funding

Archer River

Video Transcript

Cape York Region Package Stage 2

Video description

The video shows footage of unsealed sections and bitumen sealing on Fairview West Part B on Peninsula Developmental Road. A view of the dirt road from the driver’s perspective is shown, followed by an overhead shot of the newly paved section of road. Footage of driver following behind grader on unsealed section of road, followed by aerial footage of truck spraying bitumen seal onto dirt road.

The following text is displayed on screen over these scenes:

We're hitting the red dirt, investing $237.5 million to seal 55km of the Peninsula Developmental Road and 72km of community access roads to connect Cape York.

Peninsula Developmental Road

The Peninsula Developmental Road subprogram features 11 projects:

• eight pave and seal projects on the Peninsula Developmental Road between Laura and Coen
• one pave and seal project north of the Archer River, including the Aurukun Access Road intersection
• construction of the Archer River Bridge southern approach
• construction of the Archer River Bridge.

Cape York Region Package Stage 2 will seal about 55km of the Peninsula Developmental Road, leaving about 145km remaining unsealed.

The Queensland Government has made a $60 million funding commitment for Stage 3 of the Cape York Region Package, available from 2026-27 onwards. The Queensland Government's 20% contribution to Stage 3, is subject to negotiation with the Australian Government.

Peninsula Developmental Road bridge naming 

Submissions are now open for naming 3 new bridges on the Peninsula Developmental Road. We invite community members to contribute their ideas for these new structures:

• Archer River bridge
• Saltwater Creek bridge at Musgrave
• South Laura bridge.

The name should highlight the Cape York region's culture and history – be it a person, place, event, flora or fauna. Before making a submission, please ensure you have read the submission details and mandatory selection criteria information that will be used to assess your nomination.

If you have previously contacted us with a naming recommendation, you will need to submit your naming suggestion via the formal process for it to be considered.

We are aware that extensive stakeholder engagement will be required as part of this naming process and have provided an extended timeframe for submissions.

Submissions close 5pm Tuesday 1 April 2025.

Scholarship program

Since 2017, the department has offered Peninsula Developmental Road Scholarships to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students as part of the Peninsula Development Road Indigenous Land Use Agreement within the Cape York Region Package. Scholarship funds are to be used to cover educational expenses, including tertiary fees. The program has been extended through to 2028 with 6 student scholarships offered each year.

Each year, we offer:

• 4 high school scholarships valued at $2,250 each—$750 per year over 3 years.
• 2 tertiary scholarships valued at $40,000 each—$10,000 per year over 4 years.

2025 scholarship applications are now closed.

How the Peninsula Developmental Road scholarships program can help you

Video Transcript

Hi, My name is Chuulla.

My name is Georgia, and we're from Lockhart River.

Education is really important to me because I want to become a midwife and paediatric nurse and education will give me the opportunity to go back into community and help.

I want to, do physiotherapy and hopefully go back to the community to help others out.

One thing I'll tell anyone who wants to apply for the PDR scholarship is to do it.

Yeah, it helps out a lot. It makes everything easier and you just enjoy school more with all that weight off your shoulders and your family’s shoulders.

So it's helped tremendously. But especially with the cost of living, the girls are able to pick the subjects that they wanted.

Not what we could afford so it was a massive help to our family.

So both girls have, have to tertiary aspirations and it makes it attainable.

Without that, 40,000, there's no way that we could even look at the universities at the end of school.

But I think it's also a great opportunity for the cape kids, especially everything being so expensive from up home there, to have that as an additional service.

So not only, the other scholarships or other sources of income, they get for coming down for school.

This is in addition to that as well, which is a huge help.

Honestly, this process was so easy.

I think a lot of us don't apply because of the process, but it was such an easy way.

The staff were amazing and it was really, a great process to be part of.