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.

Located just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday region is in the heart of the magnificent Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The region is renowned for its scenic beaches, relaxed tropical lifestyle and recreational attractions.

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.

Townsville is a coastal city in north Queensland, Australia. The Strand esplanade, with its pier and water park, is popular. The Reef HQ Aquarium has marine life and coral from the Great Barrier Reef, plus a sea turtle hospital. Southeast of the city, the Billabong Sanctuary wildlife park is home to koalas, wombats and crocodiles. Offshore, Magnetic Island has coral reefs and a national park full of wildlife.

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.

Located on the Sunshine Coast, the Innovation Centre assists innovative and ambitious businesses at every stage across all industries. Typically, Innovation Centre members are looking to either launch a new venture or scale an existing venture in the mid to short term. Members join the Innovation Centre to access programs, training, mentoring and tailored advice aligned with their strategic needs.

Our climate is changing primarily because increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are trapping heat, warming the air and oceans.

Around 80% of the region’s population of 236,000 live in Townsville, the largest city in northern Australia. The Port of Townsville services the region’s mining industry and fishing fleets. Charters Towers is the main regional centre.

On the coast, extreme inundation and erosion events could become more frequent, resulting in high clean-up and asset maintenance costs.

Flooding, due to more intense extreme storms, could affect water, sewerage, storm water, transport and communications infrastructure. Flash flooding and wind damage will exacerbate these impacts closer to the coast. The cost of insurance may increase as a result. Inland, the impact of hotter days and extreme heat events will also affect infrastructure.

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.

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.

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.

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 largest industries in Logan in terms of contribution to Gross Regional Product (value added) are health care and social assistance, construction, manufacturing, retail trade, education and training, and wholesale trade. Some of these, particularly health and retail trade, are strongly linked to the growth and profile of the region's population. Construction is related to population growth, but Logan’s construction firms also service the wider region.

Manufacturing is the traditional strength of the city. Emerging industries in Logan include the care economy, advanced manufacturing, the circular and low-carbon economy, tourism, and creative and entertainment industries. Logan has emerging expertise in circular economy and low-carbon thinking.

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.

The largest industries in Logan in terms of contribution to Gross Regional Product (value added) are health care and social assistance, construction, manufacturing, retail trade, education and training, and wholesale trade. Some of these, particularly health and retail trade, are strongly linked to the growth and profile of the region's population. Construction is related to population growth, but Logan’s construction firms also service the wider region. Manufacturing is the traditional strength of the city.

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

The food and beverage industry on the Gold Coast has evolved to have a real focus on specialised food for sports and health and wellness. Gold Coast companies such as Morlife, Amazonia and Pure Organic Meats are building a big name for themselves in this industry, both locally and internationally.

Local and unique produce is a fundamental element to the Gold Coast’s thriving culinary sector. Restauranteurs have access to a diverse range of produce all within a few hours drive of the city.

Pick up fresh prawns from the Gold Coast Fisherman’s Cooperative, straight from the trawlers at The Spit on the Broadwater, along with some artisan baked bread from specialist local suppliers.

Wineries and distilleries abound in the Gold Coast hinterland while our urban breweries continue to flourish. Paired with fine cheese and delicacies from our smallgoods producers, the nationally acclaimed produce also supports the local farming community.

The Gold Coast is home to a growing number of unique food producers including Salad Makers, Cocoluscious Ice Cream, Gotzinger, Goodman Fielder and many more.

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.

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 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.

Brisbane excels in biomedical research, medical device manufacturing and clinical trials on a global scale, and is home to a network of world-class translational research centres and state-of-the-art hospitals and precincts.

This has created a critical mass of knowledge generation driving growth in high-value specialisations such as bio-medicine, vaccine research and drug discovery, oncology, clinical trials, ageing and chronic conditions, neurosciences, hospital management and e-health and human bionics.

Brisbane is home to world leaders in vaccine research. Researchers are connected by an ecosystem of more than 60 institutes - research hospitals, precincts, laboratories and other research organisations, including five drug discovery and development institutes, which together drive new product development:

 The University of Queensland (UQ) Diamantina Institute
 UQ Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development (TetraQ)
 Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Biomedical Innovation
 UQ Centre for Clinical Research at RBWH
 QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute's Clinical trials and Biostatistics Units

Brisbane's researchers are addressing many of today's health and medical challenges including the development of new therapeutic approaches to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

The city boasts a critical mass of research centres that contribute to new product development including the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), home to more than 450 scientists working to understand the neural circuits in the brain, and how dysfunction of these circuits can lead to an array of disorders such as ageing dementia.

Griffith University's National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Disease Research is a world-class research facility focussing on chronic fatigue syndrome.

Mater Research is a recognised leader in medical research. Our bench to bedside philosophy sees us working across Mater Health’s hospitals and health services, The University of Queensland, and the world-class Translational Research Institute (TRI).