Remote Bruce Highway ex-servo tipped as caravan park gold mine
A former petrol station in Far North Queensland is being pitched as a perfect pit stop along the Bruce Highway, with agents pointing to its potential to capture adventurers travelling up and down the coast – and those heading inland to the Kirrama Range, where caravans must be left somewhere safe.
“If you had a caravan park there with a convenience store, it would be an absolute gold mine … I’ve lived here all my life, and I know that is a fact,” says listing agent Hercules Argyros of LJ Hooker Commercial Tully.
“If I had the money, that’s what I would do,” he adds, pointing to the site’s ability to capture passing traffic and overnight stays.
The 1.13-hectare site at 56115 Bruce Highway in Kennedy, about 10 kilometres north of Cardwell and 30 kilometres south of Tully, is on the market for $1.2 million plus GST, offering direct exposure to one of Queensland’s main touring routes.
Positioned along the Bruce Highway – the 1679-kilometre coastal spine linking Brisbane to Cairns – the property sits within the Cassowary Coast, about 45 minutes south of Mission Beach and two hours and 40 minutes’ drive from Palm Cove.
The Tropical North Queensland region attracts about 2.7 million visitors annually, with much of that travel by car along the Bruce Highway, where thousands of vehicles pass through each day.
Crucially, the site sits at the gateway to the Kirrama Range, with a left turn onto Kennedy Creek Road leading about 25 kilometres inland before connecting to Kirrama Range Road.
The drive from Cardwell through to Blencoe Falls – which can take less than three hours – transitions from coastal cane fields to eucalyptus scrub and into dense tropical rainforest as it climbs into Girringun National Park.
Tourism bodies describe Blencoe Falls as “among the most spectacular in the country”, despite remaining relatively under the radar.
The route forms part of a broader inland touring circuit, extending through towns such as Mount Garnet and Innot Hot Springs – known for its mineral waters – before linking to Undara Volcanic National Park, home to one of the world’s longest and best-preserved lava tube systems.
While the location might appear remote, Argyros says it has historically worked in the site’s favour.
“The bonus of it is the fact that it fronts the highway. Any commercial property that does that is probably where the value is,” he says.
“The good thing about it is, it gets all that traffic every single day.”
The property previously operated as a service station, convenience store and post office, ceasing trade about three to four years ago before the owners removed the fuel infrastructure.
“They just made it environmentally right,” Argyros says.
With the high-exposure site’s petrol infrastructure, including tanks, having long been cleared, he says it could be quickly reactivated in its simplest form.
“It could be a corner store tomorrow, and it would be fine to do that straight away … it could be a service station, car wash, caravan park … it could be a lot of things.”
“There’s not really a lot they’d have to do … and then they could grow from a convenience store on top of that.”
He says the site even lends itself to being repurposed as a fast-food outlet, truck stop or mixed-use business (STCA), offering a live-and-work opportunity between key regional centres.
But it’s the site’s past use as a staging point for Kirrama Range visitors that creates a valuable upside opportunity.
“A lot of people … would drop their caravans off there and go up to the Kirrama Range,” he says, using the site as a place to leave them safely before the drive.
“That’s why the service station used to do so well, because people used to come along and she’d give them an opportunity to drop the vans there and then drive up to Kirrama Range, which is a scenic thing to do.”
“The road’s not designed for caravans.”
Kennedy itself is a small agricultural community of about 152 residents, according to Domain Insight, with an older-skewing population, predominantly aged 40 to 59. The town includes a government primary school, while healthcare services are located in nearby centres, including a hospital in Tully and doctors in Cardwell.
Argyros describes the area as one where “wherever you drive here, you’ve got to go the distance … it’s not a big town”.
Early interest has come from buyers looking to reinstate a service station, with enquiries described as “quite very positive” since launch.
“We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there … there’s a few talking about it, so we’re getting close,” he says.
