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City adds a new Mermaid Beach every six months

THE Gold Coast is ground zero in a Queensland population explosion that is dumping a new suburb the size of Mermaid Beach in the city every six months. Projections by the Australian Bureau of Statistics put Australia’s population at 40 million within 40 years, while Queensland will hit 8.9 million people by 2057. The Gold Coast is growing faster than anywhere else in the Sunshine State, welcoming twice as many people in the past year as the booming Sunshine Coast.

THE Gold Coast is fuelling a national population surge, amassing enough new residents to fill Mermaid Beach every six months.

Projections by the Australian Bureau of Statistics put the nation’s population at 40 million within the next 40 years – that’s more than double the number of a decade ago.

Queensland is projected to grow 85 per cent to 8.9 million people by 2057 – with Gold Coast leading the explosion.

The city welcomed twice as many people in the past year than the also-booming Sunshine Coast, and outstripped Brisbane’s growth rate.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle said the Coast was growing far more quickly than the breakneck national and state averages – up to seven times faster in some suburbs.

“In the past 12 months, growth in Australia has been 1.4 per cent, greater Brisbane has had 1.6 per cent – but parts of the Gold Coast, like Coomera and Willow Vale, have had between 5 and 7 per cent,” he said.

“Growth in Queensland really is a story of growth in southeast Queensland specifically and the fastest growth in Queensland has been on the Gold Coast.” The ABS projects WA’s population to more than double in the next 40 years from 2.6 million to 6.1 million, and Queensland to grow 85 per cent to 8.9 million.

NSW is projected to grow 45 per cent to 11.2 million, Victoria 64 per cent to 10 million, South Australia 35 per cent to 2.3 million, Tasmania 9 per cent to 567,000, the ACT 80 per cent to 711,000 and the Northern Territory 77 per cent to 434,000.

Mr McCrindle said while the nation’s capital city growth had been primarily natural – by having more births than deaths – and through international migration, the Gold Coast had an additional two “green lights”.

“There is interstate migration – there are more people coming into the Gold Coast from other states than are leaving, and you have intrastate migration – where you have people coming to the Gold Coast from elsewhere in Queensland,” he said.

“The Gold Coast is not only the retirement capital of Australia, it has got good affordable housing options for families that you don’t find in other cities.’’

Knight Frank Australia director of residential research Michelle Ciesielski said growth on the Coast could also be boosted by first home buyers who had been priced out of southern markets.