The Wide Bay Burnett region is one of the most diverse regions in Queensland, boasting outstanding natural assets and resources, agricultural land, and unique townships.

The region’s agriculture, renewable energy, manufacturing and tourism industries are key contributors to Queensland’s economy.

The Wide Bay Burnett region is one of the most diverse regions in Queensland, boasting outstanding natural assets and resources, agricultural land, and unique townships.

The region’s agriculture, renewable energy, manufacturing and tourism industries are key contributors to Queensland’s economy.

The Wide Bay Burnett region is one of the most diverse regions in Queensland, boasting outstanding natural assets and resources, agricultural land, and unique townships.

The region’s agriculture, renewable energy, manufacturing and tourism industries are key contributors to Queensland’s economy.

The Queensland Government's Queensland Train Manufacturing Program will build 65 new six-car passenger trains at a purpose-built manufacturing facility at Torbanlea, in the Maryborough region.

The program will include a partnership with local schools to train students to be the next generation of the local engineering and manufacturing workforce.

More than 80% of the region’s population is located in the major centres of Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Gympie, Maryborough and Kingaroy. The remaining residents live in predominantly rural shires.

On the coast, extreme inundation and erosion events could become more frequent with rising sea levels. Flooding, due to more intense storms, could affect water, sewerage, stormwater, transport and communications infrastructure. Inland, harsher fire weather and the impact of hotter days and extreme heat events will affect infrastructure.
Tourism is a significant industry in the region with a number of iconic ecosystems and the key tourism areas of Fraser Island, Hervey Bay and South Burnett.

The tourism industry is reliant on healthy reef and rainforest environments. The degradation of the reef will not only be a loss of great intrinsic value, it will also come at a great cost to the tourism industry.

Increased temperatures may lead to less water for agriculture, heat damage to horticultural crops and stress on livestock. Conditions may increase plant diseases, weeds and pests, and allow some pest species to move southwards into areas where they are currently excluded.

The Wide Bay Burnett region is one of the most diverse regions in Queensland, boasting outstanding natural assets and resources, agricultural land, and unique townships.

The region’s agriculture, renewable energy, manufacturing and tourism industries are key contributors to Queensland’s economy.

Traditional industries, including sugarcane and macadamia nut growing are the foundation of world class brands including Bundaberg Sugar, Bundaberg Rum, Bundaberg Ginger Beer and Suncoast Gold Macadamias.

The region also produces citrus, avocados, olives, potatoes, peanuts, beef, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and seafood.

Is Australia’s housing crisis self-inflicted? If so, then we need a series of reforms to reverse it
The best long-term solution to the structural problems of the rental crisis is to build more public and/or affordable housing.

Make renting more Sustainable. Increase rent assistance or look at rental caps, similar to countries in Europe and some US states, long term tenancy agreements with incentives for all parties to the agreement.

Build to Rent
The Build to Rent property sector is growing in Australia – this new class of housing is focused on providing high quality purpose designed and built rental stock, creating an additional housing choice for Australian renters with greater security and service.

Build to Rent developments are typically owned by institutional investors for the long term and the owner could be the developer/ongoing building manager. The format provides tenants with the flexibility of renting with the security of home ownership.

Build-to-Rent developments are usually large-scale residential properties specifically designed, built and managed for long-term ownership and rental.

Social Housing
In the 40 years between 1981 and 2021 the percentage of all Australian households living in social housing (i.e. state owned and managed public housing or community managed housing) has ranged from 4.9 per cent in 1981 to 3.8 per cent in 2021. Such a drop in the proportion of social housing raises the question of has Australia achieved the balance right, and also just what is the right level of social housing for Australia?

In 2018 Statistics Canada said 628,700 Canadian households, more than one in ten renter households nationally (13.5% of 4,652,500), were living in social and affordable housing.
In New Zealand, as of 30 June 2021, there were 74,337 public housing households. This equates to 4.0% of households living in social housing.

In England (in 2018) 17% of households (3.9 million) lived in social housing, while the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes that 1.2 million households live in public housing, which is 0.98 per cent of all housing.

The Hinkler Innovation Initiative is a community-led initiative striving to foster and champion innovation throughout the Bundaberg Region. Inspired by the pioneering spirit and trailblazing legacy of Bert Hinkler, an innovator and explorer from the Bundaberg Region, this initiative is a platform to bring together global thought leaders and our local innovators to strengthen regional innovation.

The Wide Bay Burnett is rich in a variety of minerals and many mineral projects are ready for investment to take them to the next level. This Prospectus outlines those projects that should be seriously considered.

Identified resources include gold, coal, silver, silica sand, ilmenite, bauxite, copper, nickel, molybdenum, magnetite, kaolin, limestone, apatite, manganese, scandium, feldspar, siltstone, black granite and clay.

The Wide Bay area is a military training area and has been used intensively by artillery regiments and infantry battalions employing armoured vehicles. The Wide Bay Training Area supports 7th Brigade units to conduct combat team training.

The Wide Bay region is recognised as the Gateway to the Southern Great Barrier Reef and includes Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Gympie, Fraser Island, Kingaroy and smaller regional centres. It is the most populated region outside of South-East Queensland.

This region is home to memorable tourism experiences and filled with innovators with ground-breaking ideas that are putting us on the world map.
In June 2019, ex-HMAS Tobruk was scuttled off the coast of Bundaberg and Hervey Bay. Since then, hundreds of people have dived the world-class dive site to view marine wildlife living on the wreck.

Lady Elliot Island has seen an increase in renewable energy infrastructure and it now has the capacity to run on 100% renewable energy. The island has over 653 solar panels and 232 batteries operational across the island.

Bundaberg Regional Council’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Plan that is linked to the Wide Bay-Burnett Regional Waste Management Plan, outlines a clear path forward on how to assist the Bundaberg community to move towards the Queensland Governments aspirational waste reduction and recycling targets of:

reducing the amount of waste generated by 15%
increasing the amount of materials recycled to 60%
increasing the amount of municipal solid waste diverted from landfill to 70%