The Curious Case of the Cheapest Million-Dollar View in Ipswich

Guess how much the Goodna billboard earns?

How much does it cost to advertise there, anyways?

Well, today you’re gunna find out.

Short on time? Watch the video:

This report pulls from planning documents, property listings, advertising rates, traffic data, and more.

Curious Case 1: Who Gets Paid What

Three parties take a cut from the Goodna billboard.

1. Bishopp Outdoor Advertising owns and operates the screen.
2. The landowner hosts it.
3. And the power company keeps it lit.

The split between them is where the story gets interesting.

What the Billboard Owner Earns

Bishopp doesn’t publish what individual screens earn.

But the numbers can be modelled and estimated with a little sleuthing.

The starting point is Bishopp’s own smaller digital screen on Brisbane Road in Bundamba.

A slot there costs about $600 a week.

The Goodna screen sits on the Ipswich Motorway with roughly 3.5 to 5 times the traffic.

Simple maths…

How The Estimate Works

• Bundamba benchmark: $600 per week per slot
• Goodna traffic uplift: 3.5x to 5x based on TMR traffic census data
• Estimated Goodna slot rate: roughly $2,000 to $3,000 per week
• Across a full rotation sold out for a year, that reaches up to $1 million+

This is a modelled estimate, not confirmed revenue. Actual bookings are not public.

What the Landowner Gets

The site at 12 Barram Street is two lots on a single title (12 + 12A).

One has the house. The other has the sign.

The landowner receives about $330 a week for hosting the billboard.

That was made public in a 2024 real estate listing for the house.

The house rents for $375 a week (2024). So the house earns the owner more than the billboard site does.

What the Power Company Gets

The screen runs on its own metered connection on Lot 12A. From the panel specs, the screen draws about 8 kilowatts on average across its 40 square metres.

The power calculation

• Average draw: 40.73m² x 0.2kW/m² = about 8kW
• Daily usage: 8kW x 18 hours = roughly 147kWh
• Annual usage: about 53,500kWh (53.5MWh)
• Estimated cost: $13,000 to $21,000 a year depending on the tariff

That’s roughly the same as or more than what the landowner gets paid for the whole site.

Curious Case 2: Why This Block

If a backyard billboard can earn that kind of money…

…Why isn’t every house on the motorway doing it and self managing selling their own advertising?

Because almost none of them can.

This particular block had four things going for it that almost nowhere else had all at once.

The Zoning Worked

Billboards in Ipswich need centre or industry zoning.

Most houses along the motorway are residential. This block sits in the Goodna Secondary Business Area, zoned as a Major Centre under the planning scheme at the time of approval.

It looks like a house on a residential street but on the council’s map it was already marked for commercial.

The View Worked

The motorway bends at Goodna.

That bend gives the screen an extended line of sight to westbound traffic.

Drivers see it coming for hundreds of metres before they pass it.

That long visibility window is what makes the location so incredibly valuable to advertisers.

The Fit Worked

Three physical things had to line up.

The side yard was empty, so there was space for a pole and footing without demolishing anything.

The screen could be mounted above the acoustic fence that runs along the motorway.

And it could clear the rooftop gear on the Centrelink building next door.

All three ticked.

The Engineering Worked

A 13.2 metre sign carrying 2.3 tonnes of screen (plus wind loading) is not something you bolt to an old roof.

Bare ground meant Bishopp could pour its own foundation from scratch.

The site also sits in a flood zone, so council required the structure to be engineered to survive a major flood event with full structural certification.

Curious Case 3: How It Was Approved

Ticking the boxes was one thing.

Getting it through council was another.

Bishopp hired DTS Group as their planning consultants and Nikolaou Associates as the architect.

Together they built a case that tackled every conflict in the planning scheme head on.

Three arguments stand out.

The 100mm Setback

The planning scheme required a 6 metre setback from the motorway boundary.

At 6 metres back the sign would have been hidden behind the acoustic fence and useless.

The Centrelink building next door was already sitting 100mm off the same boundary. Bishopp argued the sign should be approved at the same setback.

Council accepted it as a Performance Solution.

The Height Clearance

The sign sits 9 metres above ground to clear the Centrelink roof gear.

The screen adds another 4.2 metres on top, bringing the total to 13.2 metres.

Bishopp argued the height was consistent with the area’s future.

The Ipswich City Plan zoning planned for four-storey commercial buildings on this stretch, putting the height limit at 12 to 15 metres.

The sign fits inside that.

Tick.

The Gateway Argument

In November 2016 council created a new rule allowing digital signs at major gateways if they carried emergency and community messages.

By October 2018, less than two years later, Bishopp had a DA lodged for this exact site.

They were already a Queensland Police media partner running Amber Alerts on their screens across the state.

The first thing the Goodna screen ever displayed was not an ad.

It was a council emergency alert with GOODNA across the bottom and a council leaf motif on the frame. The opportunity knocked. Bishopp pounced.

Approved 28 May 2019

The DA was lodged on 26 October 2018 and approved on 28 May 2019.

It was code assessable, which means no public notification was required.

The application was formally described as an Advertising Device — Billboard (Major Entry Community Sign).

The Department of Transport and Main Roads was asked for advice and responded that the location sat within a Device Distraction Area and would not be supported.

Council approved it anyway.

The 15 Conditions of Approval

Council said yes but with a tight leash.

The approval came with 15 conditions covering everything from what the sign can show to what colour the lights can be.

A few of the standout conditions:

• Static images only. No animation, no video, no movement of any kind
• Each ad holds for at least 25 seconds. Changes must be instant
• All third party ads must promote businesses within the Ipswich area
• Bishopp must run community and emergency messages under a signed agreement with council
• The screen switches off from 11pm to sunrise
• The LED accent lighting on the structure must be purple
• The structure must be engineered to survive a major flood event

What About Future Billboards?

So could someone else put one up?

Two different approval paths exist.

A static billboard (printed, single image)

Needs centre or industry zoning, must be at least 800 metres from another billboard, and has a 10 metre height limit. No community messaging required.

A digital billboard (rotating paid ads on a screen)

Centre or industry zoning, one per gateway entry, a minimum of 5 kilometres apart, and it must carry emergency and community messages as part of the deal.

If your backyard is zoned residential, neither gets through.

The original rule that opened the door for the Goodna sign, Implementation Guideline No. 34, was repealed on 1 July 2025.

The digital billboard rules are now written directly into the Ipswich City Plan 2025 Advertising Devices Code.

What does a build like this actually cost?

A digital billboard like Goodna’s is not just a big TV on a pole.

The screen alone is only one part of the cost.

Once you add the engineered steel column, reinforced concrete footing, power, comms, craneage, traffic management, approvals and certification, a fresh build of this scale is likely a $750k-$1.25m ex GST capital project.

The $1,720 Goldmine

A Goodna backyard is now listed on Bishopp’s website as a bookable media product with 112,000+ daily impressions.

The DA to make it all happen cost $1,720 to lodge.