Regional Queensland is fighting for its life.
The critical shortage and rising cost of housing make more headlines than any other issue but it is just one of the major issues Queenslanders are grappling with.
Infrastructure Australia this month released a major regional analysis outlining strengths and weaknesses in regional Australia.
Check your region's infrastructure needs via this interactive mapIt questions how communities are going to ensure people can access drinking water, housing, a phone and the internet. So what do those issues look like in regional Queensland?
'Debilitating' lack of internet and mobile access
Most-affected regions:
- Darling Downs
- Rockhampton
- Gold Coast
- Wide Bay
Angela Fredericks is trying to live in the future, but it’s hard.
Her work as a mental health social worker means that it’s a life of telehealth and video conferencing with patients who require sometimes urgent and intensive support.
But poor internet and mobile connections make it close to impossible.
"I actually do trauma therapy and before we start a process I have to reassure them that if we do lose connection, I will phone back immediately," she said.
"But it can be very, very debilitating when you've got someone in such a vulnerable position.
"It becomes very overwhelming for both me and the client."
Her patients may be hundreds of kilometres away, and Ms Fredericks can be their only lifeline.
The need for better phone and internet capacity varies between regions, but it remains critical in each case.
On the Darling Downs, better connections could mean more innovation for a region best known as the nation’s food bowl.
The Gold Coast, with a booming population expected to hit 1 million by 2034, needs more internet capacity to support new arrivals likely to work from home.
The Infrastructure Australia report also found:
- In rural, areas including Goondiwindi, landline phones are still the primary form of communication
- Wide Bay’s Gin Gin Hospital and K’gari (Fraser Island) telehealth support is lost during weather events
- Central Queensland's "poor and expensive internet" limits healthcare, study and government services
If the well runs dry: Water fears
Most-affected regions:
- Cairns and the Tropical North
- Bundaberg and Wide Bay
- Townsville and Far North
- Darling Downs
- Rockhampton and Central Queensland
Gallery owner Kirra Swain knows how little it would take for her water supply to be cut off – it arrives at Mount Morgan by truck each day since local dam levels became extremely low.
"It does weigh on you all the time. It comes up constantly in conversation … it becomes part of the vernacular and it is depressing," she told ABC Tropical North.
There are hopes for a $40 million pipeline for the drought-stricken area but it’s a long way off and so far there is no promise of funding.
And while Ms Swain worries if there will be water next week, the people of Cairns have long-term concerns about a looming shortage.
Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said it was the community’s "number one issue", despite it being among Australia's wettest.
A growing population and insufficient capacity of its Copperlode Falls Dam means the tropical tourism gateway could face shortages in a few years.
"Water will become the most valuable commodity that we've got," he said.
Infrastructure Australia also reported water security at Longreach, in the state's outback heart, while stable until at least 2041, would have to meet more demand and the potential for drought meant restrictions could be put imposed.
Infrastructure Australia said a secure water supply was critical for economic productivity and found:
- Ageing water pipes and mains in Townsville and the North West, with 53 per cent of residents relying on rainwater tanks
- More than 11 per cent of household water use is caused by leaks
- Recycled water could be an option for watering parks, gardens, fields
- Wide Bay producesd10% of the state's agricultural produce and would need $2.9bn extra in the next 30 years
Housing: A crisis behind every door
Most-affected regions:
- Wide Bay
- Sunshine Coast
- Gold Coast
- Mackay and Whitsundays
- Darling Downs
Housing is now one of the state's most critical pinch points.
The Queensland Council of Social Service estimates interstate migration to Queensland is at a 20-year high and rental vacancies are at a record low.
Maryborough has a rental vacancy rate of 0.1 per cent — that means for every 1,000 rental properties, one is available.
The pressure is also pushing up prices for those trying to buy.
These combined forces are squeezing people out of the market and some are having to grapple with homelessness for the first time.
Salvation Army caseworker Calvin Taylor said the number of families living in cars and tents had increased but, more commonly, parents were living week-to-week in holiday apartments.
"It was evident that people experiencing homelessness were using holiday rentals as a way to stay off the street," he said.
Mr Taylor said the population growth in regional areas was making it difficult for many to find long-term rentals.
"With what seems to be mass migration from interstate families, it's just pushed the market out of reach for a lot of the families that we work with," he said.
"Interstate families were offering six-to-12 months rent in advance to move into rentals here.
"And this is kind of keeping locals out of the market."
He said many parents were exhausted and struggling mentally as they moved their lives each week.
"So not only are they deprived of having a roof over their heads that's permanent, there's also the problem of not having that connection with their child."
Infrastructure Australia found:
- More than 1,000 applications for social housing on the Darling Downs in 2020 and a rental vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent
- Mackay, Central Highlands lacked new homes because prices were so reliant on the price of coal
- About 894 people were homeless each day on the Sunshine Coast, which has rental vacancy rates of 0.5 per cent
- Noosa residents facing homelessness because they were priced out of housing
