The Brisbane suburbs that are bus stop black holes

This suburb is a 20-minute drive from the Brisbane CBD, but it is a bus stop black hole.

Despite buses making up two-thirds of Brisbane’s public transport trips, Hemmant is among more than a dozen mainland suburbs that have no bus stops.

There is a train station in Hemmant, a riverside suburb in Brisbane’s east, but if you want to travel to Wynnum Plaza, less than four kilometres away, you must drive, walk or catch the council’s hail-and-ride taxi service.

A trip from Macedon Street in Hemmant to Wynnum Plaza would take six minutes by car.

If you caught public transport, Translink’s journey planner recommended you walk 2.3 kilometres to catch the 225 bus from Wynnum West.

The council offers hail-and-ride personalised public transport (PPT), which is a Black & White maxi-cab running from the Hemmant train station to Wynnum Plaza, including Wynnum West State School in the afternoons, and can fit up to 10 people at a time.

It runs every half hour from 6.30 to 9.30am and 3-7pm – but only Monday to Friday and not during 12 weeks of school holidays, annually or on public holidays.

Hemmant local Jason Turner said he used to time which train he caught home with the PPT timetable, when he used to work at a previous job and public transport was an option.

One resident said the school run was difficult for working parents as children would either have to catch several buses or walk a long distance to the train station, which was unattractive due to unsuitable footpaths and speeding on main roads.

Another called for seven-day buses linking nearby suburbs, and the places where people work and shop.

Hemmant includes industrial sites north of the train line, but its residential areas are a mix of larger blocks and newer estates. Its residential population surged 21 per cent in the five years to 2021, growing to 2886 people, and new homes continue to be built due to subdivisions.

Suburbs with a smaller population that do have bus stops include Willawong (145 people), Archerfield (533 people), Tennyson (1109 people) and Burbank (1051 people).

In 2024, Lytton Labor MP Joan Pease pledged $3.4 million over four years for a Hemmant shuttle bus, but Labor lost the election.

Other Brisbane suburbs that do not have bus stops include Anstead, Karana Downs, Lytton, Mount Crosby, Pullenvale, Ransome and Upper Brookfield.