RDA Ipswich and West Moreton Roadmap 2013-2016
The RDA-I&WM is a region full of natural and man-made assets including:
Agriculture - is home to the Lockyer Valley food bowl, regarded as one of the ten most fertile valleys in the world;
Tourism & Recreation - has available land to provide for urban growth with strong tourism and recreational amenity;
Water Resources – contains the waterways of seven valleys – Stanley, Brisbane, Lockyer, Bremer, Fassifern, Logan and Albert; and contains the majority of SEQ‟s water storage;
Environment and Heritage - encompasses world heritage areas of national and international significance; including the World Heritage Gondwana Rainforests of SEQ;
Infrastructure - Road - is traversed and connected by seven main road transport links; Rail - is traversed and connected by three rails lines, two of which carry major freight; Telecommunications - is a selected early release site for the National Broadband Network infrastructure currently being rolled out; and
Defence - is home to Australia‟s largest Defence Base at Amberley with 3,134 Air Force personnel, 603 Army personnel and a varying number of support contractors.
Population Growth – a population of 270,000 in 2011 and is SEQ‟s fastest growing area and is forecast to grow by an average of 13,500 people per annum for the next 20 years;
Activity Centres - contains the City of Ipswich and its main towns include Beaudesert, Tamborine, Canungra, Boonah, Laidley, Gatton, Fernvale, Lowood, Esk, Toogoolawah and Kilcoy;
Residential Land - is home to Australia‟s largest master planned community at Springfield (ultimate 85,000) and Australia‟s next largest master planned community at Ripley Valley (ultimate 120,000);
Industrial Land- contains existing or proposed regionally significant industry parks including Bromelton,
Carole Park, Redbank Motorway Estate, Swanbank Enterprise Park, Citiswitch, Wulkuraka/Karrabin, Amberley Aerospace and Defence Development, Purga, Ebenezer and potential for the Gatton West.
