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.

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%