The Regional Economic Development Strategy 2020-2041 (REDS) provides the blueprint for Council, industry and the business community to collaboratively build a $40 billion economy by attracting and generating 100,000 new jobs for our region by 2041.

The REDS provides long-term economic direction for the region and drives innovation and entrepreneurship to position the Moreton Bay region as one of Australia’s top 10 regional innovation hubs by 2041.

The success of the REDS depends on collaboration and support from all stakeholders and the MBRC Economic Development team serves as the catalyst in maintaining this engagement.

Morton Bay Region has the ingredients for economic growth in land, infrastructure, people and a strategic location. It is a function of leveraging these advantages and creating opportunities for the future. Through a strong economic development program, the region can continue to grow, maintain and increase its vibrancy and support an ever growing, attractive lifestyle.

The manufacturing industry is the 3rd largest industry in the overall composition of Gold Coast economy. It is the fourth largest industry in Queensland and the sixth largest industry in the national economy.

Furthermore, the Gold Coast manufacturing industry has grown to outperform the state and national economies in numerous comparable measures such as output sales, employment, and exports.

The Greater Whitsunday region covers 90,354 square km. Comprising of the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday local government areas, the Greater Whitsunday Region is encompassed by St Lawrence in the south, Gumlu in the north to Clermont in the west and the Great Barrier Reef Whitsunday’s group of 74 islands to the east.

The region is one of the most naturally beautiful and resource-rich locations in Australia contributing more than $46 billion in economic output to the Australian economy.

From the largest coal mining deposits in Australia, the Bowen and Galilee basins, the iconic Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Islands and boasting a diverse agricultural industry which provides over $1.46 billion to the Queensland economy, the region is an economic powerhouse that is key to Queensland’s economy.

Boasting an established clean and green agribusiness industry, the Moreton Bay Region provides farmers, exporters, processors, retailers, and chefs the ideal destination to succeed in this vibrant and growing industry.
The Moreton Bay Region’s access to major transport and infrastructure, combined with rich soils and a sub-tropical climate has contributed to the region’s thriving $846 million agricultural industry, with agricultural exports valued at around $420 million.
In the Moreton Bay Region you’ll find:
• The largest strawberry producing area in Australia.
• A $110 million berry fruits industry.
• One third of Australia's strawberries by weight.
• Over one quarter of Australia's pineapple crop.
• Queensland's only aquaculture research facility supporting CSIRO, DAF and University of the Sunshine Coast research projects.
• A sustainable future through the Wamuran Irrigation Scheme.
• Emerging agriculture trends like finger lime producers.
• Enabled agri-tech through the high-speed National Broadband Network.
• Production of more than 1,074 tonnes of macadamia nuts per year.
• Production of more than 441 tonnes of avocados per year.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Armidale and Cape Class Patrol Boat presence in Cairns, and the strength of the Cairns marine industry capability in maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of the vessels locally, play an essential role in protecting Australia’s northern maritime borders.

Queensland’s maritime sector is world class, delivering quality maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities to sustain ADF naval and Australian Border Force platforms, as well as the Pacific Island Guardian-class patrol boats.

The Regional Maintenance Centre north east, in Cairns, provides supply chain support and maintenance services for Defence vessels based in and visiting the region.

The Cairns Defence Precinct comprises HMAS Cairns (approximately 1000 personnel) and is a strategic base that provides maintenance, logistics and administrative support for fleet units including patrol boats, landing craft, hydrographic ships and the Laser Airborne Depth Sounder. Patrol boats from Cairns support Operation Sovereign Borders in the Christmas Island region as well as defence engagement in the South West Pacific region.

Queensland’s long history of resources activity has left a legacy of abandoned mines across the state but, thanks to advancing technology and changing market demands, some of these mines have the potential to once again become commercial operations.

Situated 90km west of Cairns, Wolfram Camp is named for wolframite – an important primary ore of tungsten which miners have been extracting from the site since the 19th century.

The critical mineral has numerous uses including in solar technology, wind turbine blades, drill bits and filaments for lighting.

The Weipa region is mined for bauxite and kaolin. The Rio Tinto Weipa operations in Far North Queensland includes three bauxite mines, processing facilities, shiploaders, an export wharf, two ports, power stations, a rail network and ferry terminals

The Gold Coast is Australia's fifth largest city with one of the fastest growing economies in the country.

Industries such as tourism, property and construction, manufacturing, screen, health, education and sport have played a big part in making the Gold Coast city what it is today.

We are leading digital and business investment programs to establish the Gold Coast as Australia's fastest growing economy, driven by the adoption of telecommunications and cutting-edge technologies.

Leveraging its proximity to the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Rockhampton Airport, Port Alma, and the Bajool Magazine, Rockhampton Region is uniquely placed to support a permanent Australian Defence Force (ADF) presence. With experienced large equipment maintenance providers, Rockhampton provides future defence industry capability.

Townsville possesses a significant creative industry sector and is regarded as the cultural hub of North Queensland.

The region has a growing cultural identity, embracing arts, crafts, design, fashion, music, performing arts and the multi-cultural identity of Townsville.

The key components of Townsville’s creative industries are:
• Townsville Civic Theatre – Offering performances in dance, music, opera, comedy and drama from local, featuring Australian and international artists
• Perc Tucker Regional Galley – Townsville’s premier regional art gallery
• Riverway Arts Centre – Townsville’s newest function centre entwining arts, leisure and the natural environment
• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre – Providing key insight into traditional and contemporary life and culture.

Townsville’s has a number of creative art schools and production companies, including:
• James Cook University – School of Creative Arts
• Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts
• Townsville Academy of Performing Arts
• Townsville Music and Performing Arts Space
• La Luna Youth Arts.

Manufacturing is the largest export industry for the Moreton Bay Region, valued at approximately $923.8 million. The region’s industrial precincts are Industry 4.0 enabled as they are either already connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN) or the rollout has substantially commenced. The region's proximity to major transport infrastructure and a skilled workforce provide the convenience of a major city without the high price tag.

Through our Economic Development Action Plan council is committed to supporting regional manufacturers to be more productive, increase their international competitiveness and access emerging growth opportunities in the Moreton Bay Region.
In the Moreton Bay Region you’ll find:
• Three major industrial hubs, including the Brendale Industrial Precinct, one of the top 10 places to work in Greater Brisbane.
• Access skilled workforce.
• Road and rail connections to the Port of Brisbane, Brisbane Domestic and International Airports, and Australia's newest international airport, the Sunshine Coast Airport.
• NBN connectivity in industrial precincts.
• Available and affordable industrial land.
• Development of Smart City infrastructure.
• $1.7 billion in local manufacturing sales.
• Raw input providers including timber plantations and saw mills, quarries and agricultural producers.
• Two large greenfield future industrial hubs on the last northern Bruce Highway interchanges.
• Innovative businesses embedded in local and global supply chains.

Historically and as the economic hub for Central Queensland, our Region has many strengths in agriculture, mining services, energy, construction, education and health services. Our strategic location as a logistics hub well serviced by road, rail, air and sea positions us positively for future opportunities as Northern, Central and Southern Australia continue to grow.

The Gold Coast city will have three Education and Research precincts centred around each university campus, providing job and career opportunities to those in the sector and beyond. Connectivity for students, academics and researchers will be the envy of other cities, with the Gold Coast boasting effective, high-speed IT infrastructure and integrated public transport. The sector will continue to work collaboratively for student and enterprise outcomes.

With 3 world class universities and over 200 quality education and training providers the Gold Coast is a unique education destination. Nowhere else in Australia can we find a city that offers access to two international airports within 1 hour; world famous beaches and rainforests; and an education industry that operates for 364 days per year.

North Queensland is absolutely central to the industry’s future, because of the wealth of critical minerals in the North-West Minerals Province, including copper, vanadium and cobalt that are essential for advanced and renewable technologies

North Queensland will be home to a whole new industry, mining, processing and manufacturing vanadium initially, and other critical minerals in the future.

The opportunities in North Queensland include mining and processing the minerals for vanadium, zinc bromine and iron flow batteries, cobalt and nickel used in lithium-ion batteries, high-purity alumina for LEDs, batteries and semiconductors, rare earth elements used in electronics and silicon for solar panels and semiconductors.

An Australian-first critical minerals demonstration facility which will be expanded to include more than just vanadium will be built in Townsville to unlock Queensland’s next mining and manufacturing boom.

The Wet Tropics region is located along the coast of Far North Queensland (FNQ), between Townsville and Cooktown. Fertile soils and high rainfall have historically supported significant agricultural production and by the middle of last century, agriculture had become the region’s dominant economic driver.

Over the past 50 years, the region’s agricultural profile has continued to change. The sugar, maize and beef industries have remained constants, while a number of other industries emerged including tobacco, dairy and horticulture, to become significant contributors to the region’s economic and social fabric. While horticulture, particularly bananas, remain significant industries within the region, tobacco has disappeared and dairy has declined.

Today, seafood, horticultural tree crops, vegetables and beef cattle are the big growth opportunities among the region’s high-value food commodities.

Queensland’s resource boom presents the single most significant opportunity for the Brisbane economy. There are currently around 177 resource companies headquartered in Brisbane. Major global players include Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Santos, Peabody Energy, Xstrata, Vale and Bechtel Mining and Metals Division. More giant global resource companies will locate key operations here if Brisbane grows as a global centre for resource industry technologies and services.

• Rio Tinto - Global energy headquarters, Australian coal headquarters and global centre for aluminium research and development
• BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi Alliance - Global coal headquarters
• Aurizon – Global headquarters
• Anglo American - Australian headquarters
• Adani Mining – Australian headquarters
• Bechtel – Global metals and minerals headquarters
• Komatsu – Australian mining headquarters
• Peabody Coal - Australian headquarters
• Sandvik Mining and Construction – Australasian headquarters
• Talisman Energy – Oceania headquarters
• Thiess – Global headquarters
• Vale – Global coal headquarters
• Xstrata Zinc – Australian headquarters

Supported by the city’s world-class research and education facilities, Brisbane offers food and beverage product manufacturers a talented labour pool plus access to the latest food technology and innovation research.

The food and beverage, grocery, and fresh produce manufacturing industry is worth $114 billion to the Australian economy. Brisbane is fast becoming a hub for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing in Australia.

Brisbane City Council has four resource recovery centres at Chandler, Ferny Grove, Nudgee and Willawong with recycling and waste facilities.

Brisbane households generate many different types of waste – from food and textile waste to e-waste and hazardous waste.

Clothes, footwear, sheets, towels, blankets and household textiles are part of our everyday lives. When it comes time to dispose of these items, there are a lot of things you can do to keep them out of landfill and in circulation.

In Australia, each person generates approximately 20 kilograms of e-waste each year. As a result, Australians have become the fourth highest generators of e-waste per capita. E-waste can be recycled. Just over half of all e-waste is collected in Australia, with 80% of this going to low-efficiency recycling. This means that valuable resources (such as lithium and cobalt) in e-waste are not reused.

Recyclables are taken to Visy’s Material Recovery Facility (MRF) and are sorted into different categories – paper, cardboard, plastics, glass and metal. Any non-recyclable items or ‘contaminants’ are detected by the sophisticated mechanical sorters and removed.

Council collects recycling with dedicated recycling trucks. In 2017-18, Council collected approximately 90,000 tonnes of paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metals from Brisbane households which were then sorted and prepared for reprocessing into new products and packaging.

Recycling is one of the easiest ways to contribute to environmental issues by helping to conserve water, reduce energy use, reduce greenhouse emissions, reduce reliance on landfill and conserve natural habitats.

Ipswich economy is driven by high value industries of manufacturing, health care and social assistance, retail trade, education and defence. Ipswich is located in a prime location in South East Queensland, between Gold Coast to the south, Toowoomba to the west, Brisbane to the east, and the Sunshine Coast to the north.

Our start-up economy is on the rise, with the Gold Coast ranked fifth in Australia for new business starts. Our innovative business culture positions us among the top six cities in Australia for lodging patent applications on a per capita basis.

Our support for start-ups has never been stronger with funding and grants designed to turn great ideas into commercial reality and take them to the world.

The Gold Coast is moving to establish our city as an entrepreneurial hub that is globally recognised as a place where knowledge, innovation and commercialisation are the key drivers of growth in the local economy.