Cairns will see boom in suburbs
CAIRNS will need at least five new suburbs within the next 10 years to accommodate the city’s booming population.
Bernard Salt’s demographic audit of the Cairns region – including Mareeba, Atherton Tableland, Cassowary Coast, Yarrabah and Douglas local government areas – points to an influx of 50,000 more people coming to live in Far North Queensland during the coming decade.
Mr Salt said there needed to be foresight and proper planning to accommodate these additional people.
“As a rough rule of thumb, I always say that every 10,000 people is roughly a new suburb,” he said. “So it’s another five suburbs, or probably more because they all won’t nearly add up to (10,000 per suburb).
“It’s probably 5-7 suburbs that will be created over the next decade and a half.”
The Real Estate Institute of Queensland Far Northern zone chairman, Tom Quaid, believes any new suburbs will need to be located south of Cairns, the only real land option for expansion.
“You’re going to be looking on the southside at existing farmland which, over time, will be converted to housing, like it’s already happening in much of Cairns previously,” he said.
“Council’s planning is also on the southside as well, with new facilities going on, and the focus on the roads which have been upgraded to a much higher standard on the southside than the north.”
Within the past five years, several residential estates have sprung up in Cairns, ranging from the expansive Mt Peter, through to the very new Enclave at Earlville.
Mr Quaid suggested existing farmland further south would eventually give way to newer estates.
“You’ve got stuff around Green Hill, and you’ve got between Wright’s Creek and Gordonvale, a pretty significant amount of land down there which is mostly under cane at the moment,” he said.
“But when the price of cane drops and land goes up, they are likely to be considered more strongly for residential subdivisions. And as time goes on, when you need to go further afield, people will go south of Gordonvale.” Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said Mt Peter and the broader southern corridor of Cairns were the focus for population growth in the short term. “By 2050, we expect up to an additional 50,000 residents to be living there,” he said. He said if the city was to support the increasing population, there needed to be solid investment in key road infrastructure. “It’s no secret that our roads are struggling to cope with current demand,” he said. “The Cairns Western Arterial Road, Captain Cook Highway and southern approach to the city need a genuine strategic approach and injection of funds, rather than quick-fixes. We know that the Smithfield Bypass, for example, will already be at capacity when it opens. “We need a long-term transport strategy that includes an extension of the national highway and takes account of public transport needs well into the future.” He said it was up to three levels of government to work together to properly address the future of the city, so Cairns could thrive for generations.