The Bundaberg Region has been named one of the top destinations for regional movers and the fifth most popular area for city-dwellers to relocate to in the latest Regional Movers Index report, released today.
A partnership between Commonwealth Bank and the Regional Australia Institute, the report is an analysis of the quarterly and annual trends in people moving to and from Australia’s regional areas.
The Bundaberg Region now has a population over 102,000 people and looks to continue positive growth into the future.
Mayor Jack Dempsey said he wasn't surprised by the results from the Regional Movers Index report, with more and more people wanting a slice of what Bundaberg has to offer.
“We are no longer Australia's best-kept secret!” he said.
“The Bundaberg Region has always been about liveability and lifestyle and we are a caring, loving and welcoming community.
“In the past six years our economic growth has gone from -3 to 5.4 per cent which is double the State average.
“We are still low-cost compared to other areas across Australia and we offer our residents multiple hospitals, good education, great infrastructure, a safe community and magnificent environment from the beach to the hinterland – who wouldn't want to live here?”
Regional Australia Institute (RAI) CEO Liz Ritchie said the impact of capital city movers to the regions was now having a flow on effect to other regional places, many of which have historically seen limited population growth.
“In the early days of COVID, the high-growth places were generally high-amenity locations such as the Surf Coast, Byron Bay and Noosa,” she said.
“But the latest dataset shows us that regional people are leaving these areas for other inland centres or coastal towns – with a growing number opting to go even further away from Sydney and Melbourne.
Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager for Regional and Agribusiness Banking, Paul Fowler said there was a slight drop of just 0.8 per cent in the number of people moving from cities to regional towns in the December quarter, well below the typical rate of around 8 per cent normally experienced over the holiday season period.
“This confirms that regional hubs are continuing to attract thousands of metro movers,” Mr Fowler said.
“Many are attracted by the opportunities that our thriving regional economies present.
While it’s been a difficult year for many businesses who have faced significant challenges, including labour shortages and inflationary pressures, industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture are growing strongly, and regional businesses are investing more to sustain increasing demand for their products and services.
“Key centres, such as Geelong in Victoria, Newcastle and Wollongong in NSW, and Bundaberg and Townsville in Queensland offer a wonderful mixture of attractive lifestyle benefits and significant business opportunities.”
The top 5 most popular destinations for both metropolitan and regional movers in terms of share of total net internal migration were:
Sunshine Coast (+12.5%)
Gold Coast (+11.3%)
Greater Geelong (+5.2%)
Fraser Coast (+4.4%)
Bundaberg (+3.3%)
For those already living in regional Australia and making a regional move in 2022, Queensland held the most appeal.
Out of the Top 10 LGAs attracting the greatest level of net regional migration inflows, eight were in Queensland.
The top 10 most popular destinations for regional-to-regional movers were:
Bundaberg (+5.8%)
Fraser Coast (+5.8%)
Toowoomba (+5.6%)
Sunshine Coast (+4.5%)
Maitland (+4.3%)
Townsville (+4.2%)
Gympie (+3.4%)
Cairns (+2.8%)
Gladstone (+2.8%)
Ballarat (+2.6%)
To access the latest Regional Movers Index Report click here.
Well lets hope if that’s true, that the Council has extended its future planning past three years so we will have the infrastructure in place to support all these people moving into our area. If past experience is anything to go by (i.e. the ripping up of a three hundred thousand dollar car park for the Aquatic centre, because the didn’t know three years ago that they were going to build the Aquatic centre) I have my doubts, but hey anything would be possible if we had some new blood in the councilors and also the CEO’s position.
Does this mean that with more people living and building here and paying rates, we will actually have a rate reduction. Right now many pensioners are being forced out of their homes due to massive rises in energy, rates, insurance, general cost of living, medical costs and so on despite receiving small rebates along the way. Hm.
That’s great news. So isn’t it time to seal ALL the streets from side to side and get rid of that grass verge. The street I live in now has trucks coming down it and buses, even thought they are not carrying any passengers. More and more kids riding their scooters in the centre, many without helmets.
Sorry but I found Bundaberg to be currupted by child safety ,police, public guardian,
So many people falsely charged or fabricated stories made UpTo defame you
Unfortunately they are unaware I
Of:
1. Substandard single lane roads to Gympie.
2. Limited, expensive and unreliable Queensland Rail services to Roma St, Brisbane.
3. High Flight cost to Brisbane; and limited service availability.
4. Poor Bundaberg Hospital facilities. Very few Qualified Dectors.
5. Limited Medical specialists services.
6. Limited MRI Facities
7. Very High rates charges.
8. Expensive limited bus services.
8. Inadequate Parks maintenance outside the CBD.
Dear Graham, I have to say that when I approached council about that (sealing the streets side to side, as my street is the same) I was told they couldn’t do that as ” All that bitumen would make the town too hot! ( I kid you not). When I mentioned that doing just that in Barolin Street and cutting down all the trees was worse, they had no reply. When a council removes a rates discount and then tells us it wasn’t really a discount and it was removed so it would be fare to all ratepayers, I give up, and accept they do what they want and feel no need to justify it to ratepayers.
It helps that we have major developments with entire new suburbs being worked on that should be adequate to meet demand in time. Many other areas are not expanding like Bundaberg is because they face significant barriers to development. Also helps that we have significant land still available that can be used for further expansion. Bundaberg also has drinking water-supply for 300k people so we never had any serious water restrictions. This is ontop of multiple dams of water to grow crops. We are essentially land, water & food rich…
With a new hospital being worked on, new & improved tourism facilities already completed, new trains coming, Bonsi air to help with other problems & other upgrade such as the CBD rework & new pool.
As Australia’s population grows we could rapidly become the size of the Sunshine Coast because of there not being many significant challenges to development that bigger Cities are already facing they will have to pause development while we continue.