Additional city size of Brisbane
Bright new vision for Southeast Queensland
A BOLD $70 billion proposal to fast-track Southeast Queensland’s development into a world-class super-metropolis of the future has been unveiled.
A new report recommends a rapid rail network that would carry passengers to the centre of Brisbane from the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich and even Toowoomba in less than 45 minutes.
Vast improvements to public transport and carefully-targeted road projects would enable people to travel across individual cities within half an hour.
The blueprint is outlined in a report by major infrastructure consultants SMEC, who were commissioned by the SEQ Council of Mayors to investigate transport as part of a feasibility study into a possible Olympic Games bid.
It proposes a major shift in priority to public transport, reversing a trend towards private car use over the past 30 years.
The centrepiece is a new “faster rail” network of frequent trains travelling at up to 250km/h. Average speeds of 150km/h would be almost three times the current 60km/h.
A CITY almost twice the size of Brisbane will be added to southeast Queensland’s population over the next quarter of a century.
Just over two million more people will live here, swelling the number from 3.5 million to 5.5 million –more than currently live in the entire state.
“The southeast Queensland of 2043 will be the same size as Sydney or Melbourne is today,” said leading demographer Bernard Salt who has conducted exclusive research for The Chronicle’s Future SEQ series.
“It is quickly emerging as Australia’s third global force and, as such, it will offer all the urban amenity and quality you would expect from an urban conurbation of that scale.
“And yet it is quite unlike any other city in the country. It’s trump card is its differential.
“Others are capital city-centric like a fried egg with a big yolk in the centre and the white spreading outwards. Southeast Queensland is like the inside of a clock, with a big cog surrounded by several smaller cogs working together – the surrounding council areas in greater Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and Toowoomba.
“They are independent but connected. You can be part of a greater whole but not be swamped by a Los Angelian sprawl as you might get in Sydney.”
The latest long-term population projections will be published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics next month. But on current trends, the southeast corner will grow by about 80,000 people every year – slightly faster than the past few decades and about twice the rate of OECD countries.
Accommodating the additional people will require 794,000 extra homes by 2043, and 954,000 more jobs will be needed.
Debbie Smith, Brisbane managing partner of professional services firm PwC, which conducted exclusive research and analysis for the series, warned the surge of people would see “demands grow on current infrastructure and the natural environment, as well as placing pressure on the provision of services.
“Population growth and urbanisation are likely to increase pressure on supplies of food and fresh water at a time when any change to the climate may make it harder to grow food crops in some regions.”
The Sunshine Coast will rise from 300,000 to 510,00 and Toowoomba from 134,000 to 180,000.
Mr Salt said the largest driver of population growth “will continue to be overseas migration” And Queensland is the only state with uninterrupted positive net interstate migration, including many overseas arrivals shifting here after periods in other states.
Asia will be an enormous influence in shaping SEQ’s future, through both migration and economic opportunities.