SUBURBS SET TO DOUBLE IN SIZE
Highfields, western areas hot spots
TENS of thousands of extra people will call Toowoomba home between now and 2043, with the population in areas like Highfields and Darling Heights forecast to explode.
Previously unpublished data from the State Statistician’s Office reveals the enormous extent of the expected growth in the region’s popu- lation hot-spots.
In 2016, 12,611 people called Highfields home. That is expected to almost double to 23,251 people by 2043.
TOOWOOMBA suburbs will spring out of paddocks as 10s of thousands of extra people squeeze into the region.
Previously unpublished data from the State Statistician’s Office revealed the enormous extent of the expected explosion in the region’s population hot spots between now and 2043.
The western suburbs, including Westbrook, are set to boom. In 2016, 13,028 people called the area home. That number is expected to increase to 30,128 in 2043.
Highfields is set to almost double in size, rising from a population of 12,611 people in 2016 to 23,251 in 2043.
Darling Heights will have a population of 23,354 by 2043, up from 13,722 in 2016.
The Drayton-Harristown population will rise from 11,079 to 17,073.
The Lockyer Valley will also see an increase in population, from 11,378 in 2016 to 16,748 in 2043.
Population numbers are predicted to grow slightly, or remain the same in Cambooya, Gowrie, Middle Ridge, Newtown, North Toowoomba, Rangeville, Toowoomba Central, Wilsonton and Toowoomba East.
Many of the neighbourhoods people currently call home will be virtually unrecognisable as planners and councils wrestle with how to balance growth with liveability.
Across Queensland, the State Government’s Shaping SEQ regional plan expects 794,000 new dwellings to be built by 2041 — more than half as many again on top of the existing 1.3 million.
It sets a target of containing 60 per cent of them within the existing urban footprint.
Australian Industry Group’s Queensland head Shane Rodgers said there had to be a population policy to deal with the rise.
“Queensland has had various periods of very fast population growth and has generally struggled to keep up with the necessary infrastructure,” he said.
“We are seeing that starkly now on the main highways into Brisbane. They are starting to choke the flow of our lives and our economy activity.”
The region required “some bigger thinking” to deal with the next surge.
“Crucially we need a 50-year population policy, not a fouryear infrastructure plan that is constantly at the whim of political change and fighting between different levels of government,” he said.
Planning Institute of Australia president Stephen Smith said an honest conversation with the community was needed.
“I think there’s a fear of public backlash and the public is fearful because they don’t fully know what’s going on,” he said. “Planners need to be much better at communicating the problems and the visions.
“The future is undeniably going to be different and it should be the one we want not the one we are willing to accept which is what we have at the moment.”
The Ripley Valley, south of Ipswich — where a smattering of 5000 or so people currently live — will be home to 150,000, close to the size of Cairns or Toowoomba today. And further west, Rosewood will erupt from about 12,000 to more than 100,000.
The Greater Springfield masterplanned city will also have reached its target 115,000 population a decade earlier.
Ipswich City Council administrator Greg Chemello said it was quite remarkable that the population of Ipswich was set to grow to more than 500,000 people in the next 20 years..
“If we can couple this with faster rail, clever road systems and responsible public transport networks, we’re well on the way to becoming an even greater place to live,” Mr Chemello said.