Qld government 30 year plan

[8fold]

Hi all,
Was reading the QLD governement 30 year plan which has some fairly ambitious things in it including a goal to have 50% of the population of QLD living outside of the SE corner within 30 years:

http://queenslandplan.qld.gov.au/visions/assets/qld-plan-working-draft.pdf

This got me to thinking, I had a look at the demographics here:

http://www.oesr.qld.gov.au/products...rowth-highlights-trends-qld-2013-revision.pdf

and at present the QLD population is 4.6 million with 3.05 million living in the SE corner (Bris, Sunny and Gold Coasts and Ipswich). Our average population growth seems to be about 2% which means in 30 years out total QLD population will be around 8.2 million. If we want 50% outside the SE corner that means an increase to the rest of QLD from 1.55 million to 4.1 million in the next 30 years to places like Toowoomba, Townsville, Cairns and Mackay. All pie in the sky stuff at the moment but food for thought.....

 

[impala67]

I always like the detail in these sort of reports. Interesting thread 8fold.

 

[norwoodman]

Queensland has always been structured a bit differently from the other states in terms of the population. Nearly all the other states have the largest secondary centres within an hour or two from the capital, and over half the state population in the capital - Queensland has several major centres many hours drive from Brisbane.

There are 33 centres around Australia with over 50000 people. Even though it's only the third most populous state, Queensland has the most with 11 centres (in order of size: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Cairns, Toowoomba, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Gladstone). So certainly Queensland is the state in the best position to decentralise, as it has the most key regional centres and over 60% of the regional Australia population growth not in the capital cities.

 

[Sequin]

It is also interesting that a new SEQ Regional Plan is being prepared and is expected to be finalised by the end of calendar year 2014.

There is a potential conflict between decentralisation objectives in the Qld plan and the growth numbers that are included in the regional plan. Might need more than political spin to resolve, or one or both plans might have to lose some numbers?

 

[8fold]

(in order of size: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Cairns, Toowoomba, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Gladstone). So certainly Queensland is the state in the best position to decentralise, as it has the most key regional centres and over 60% of the regional Australia population growth not in the capital cities.

So to extend the thinking the present populations of major non SE cities:

Townsville 172,000
Cairns 143,000
Toowoomba 110,000
Mackay 82,000
Rockhampton 78,000
Bundaberg 70,000
Hervey Bay 50,000
Gladstone 44,000

Total of around 750,000 (according to the only source of truth Wikipedia), if growth is expected mostly in these major centres they must on average grow 550% over the next 30 years?
As an experiment can someone please spend a few million land banking around these places and we will check on progress in 30 yrs?

 

[norwoodman]

So to extend the thinking the present populations of major non SE cities:

Townsville 172,000
Cairns 143,000
Toowoomba 110,000
Mackay 82,000
Rockhampton 78,000
Bundaberg 70,000
Hervey Bay 50,000
Gladstone 44,000

Total of around 750,000 (according to the only source of truth Wikipedia), if growth is expected mostly in these major centres they must on average grow 550% over the next 30 years?
As an experiment can someone please spend a few million land banking around these places and we will check on progress in 30 yrs?

If regional QLD is to reach 4 million people in 30 years, it will need to more than double from its present 1.5 million. There are a lot more people who currently don't reside in any of those centres listed. With that in mind, you're still looking at tripling the population of many of the centres, so it's still a tall order.