Great State. Great Opportunity. Queensland Make It Your Home
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Queensland make it your home Great state. Great opportunity. Queensland make it your home Why Queensland? ......................................................................... 03 Queensland Snapshot .................................................................. 04 Queensland Regions Map ............................................................... 05 Welcome to the Queensland Lifestyle ......................................... 06 Fast Facts ....................................................................................... 07 Our Economy and Business Opportunities ..................................... 08 Our Government ............................................................................. 10 Queensland’s Regional Centres .................................................. 11 Our Essential Services .................................................................... 12 Living in Greater Brisbane ............................................................... 14 Living on the Gold Coast ................................................................. 15 Living on the Sunshine Coast .......................................................... 16 Living in South West Queensland and the Darling Downs ............... 17 Living in the Wide Bay Burnett ....................................................... 18 Living in Gladstone .......................................................................... 19 Living in Rockhampton .................................................................... 20 Living in the Central West region ..................................................... 21 Living in Mackay and the Whitsundays ............................................ 22 Living in Townsville .......................................................................... 23 Living in Mount Isa and the North West Region ............................... 24 Living in Cairns and Tropical North Queensland .............................. 25 Living in Queensland .................................................................... 26 More useful web sites .................................................................... 31 2 | Queensland The Neish Family’s story Originally from a small town called Hawik in Scotland, 33 year old Hamish is now living a lifestyle most people only dream of in Queensland, Australia. After visiting the Sunshine State with his wife in 2004, Hamish made the decision to move away from the cold and enjoy a whole new life in one of Australia’s most desirable cities, Brisbane. Queensland has relaxed its visa requirements in recent years and boasts the fastest processing system in Australia. As a registered nurse, Hamish was eligible to apply for a skilled visa that also allows his family to migrate with him. Rather than go through a migration agent, Hamish completed the application himself online and just three months later he had all the permission he needed to live and work in Australia. “We saved ourselves a heap of money by Why Queensland? doing the application ourselves,” Hamish said, “and it really wasn’t very hard.” People around the world want to improve their quality His wife Kerry is a mental health nurse. of life and that of their families. Queensland’s excellent “We moved to Australia almost a lifestyle, clean green environment and business year after we started the visa process opportunities make it a great place to live and work. and found work immediately in the private hospital system,” he said. This state is a place of great opportunities, ideas and innovation The couple’s four year old son Fergus is also that welcomes the world to visit, study, do business and invest. settling in to the new lifestyle easily. Our political stability and solid growth make for an investment- friendly business environment. We offer a safe, long-term “We just feel at home here, the landscapes investment climate, supported by our highly skilled workforce and are similar but the weather is so much strategic Asia-Pacific location. better,” Hamish said. International investors can pursue a wealth of opportunities and The young family is business advantages through our six diverse economic sectors, revelling in the outdoor including agriculture, construction, resources, tourism, science lifestyle; snorkelling and innovation, and education and training. with dolphins at Tangalooma, camping We welcome highly skilled business people and professionals at Fraser Island and who want to make this state their home and contribute to our eating outdoors on the economy and culture. barbeque all year round. Hamish Neish “Nominating Queensland on your visa application can speed the process up by months and the State is actively encouraging skilled migration at the moment,” Hamish said. The couple now plans to apply for Australian citizenship. 3 | Queensland Queensland snapshot Area 1727 million km2 (667,000 mi) Capital city Brisbane, population 2.24 million (April 2014) Population 4.69 million (Dec quarter, 2013) Coastline 5200 km (2,000 mi) Climate Tropical/subtropical/temperate Summer temperatures 17 to 30 degrees Celsius (62 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit) Winter temperatures 10 to 22 degrees Celsius (50 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit) Major international airports Brisbane, Cairns, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast Currency Australian dollar Time zone GMT +10 International calling code +61 7 4 | Queensland 15° S Queensland’s Regions 15° S T h e Cairns G r e Far North a t B ar rie r R e e f SCALE Townsville 0 100 200 Mt Isa Kilometres North West North Mackay Central Tropic of Capricorn Rockhampton Gladstone Central West Wide Bay Burnett Sunshine Coast South West Darling 28° S Downs BRISBANE Gold Coast 5 | Queensland Welcome to the Queensland lifestyle If you’re looking for business and career opportunities as well as a great lifestyle, make Queensland your home. Queensland offers many business and career opportunities in diverse industries, with a stable economy and excellent working conditions. And the pace of your lifestyle is your choice; Queensland has large, metropolitan cities along the coast to rural towns and everything in between. Located on the east coast of Australia, Queensland is one of the country’s most attractive places to live and work, with a lifestyle that ranks among the best in the world. Known as Australia’s sunshine state, Queensland is the second-biggest state in the country, covering 1.727 million km2 - twice the size of Texas, USA and seven times the size of the UK. Queensland has many natural, economic and structural advantages over other parts of the country and the world. We have a diverse culture and an open, friendly and inclusive society. We also have abundant natural resources, sophisticated infrastructure, a highly skilled workforce and innovative industry, research and development sectors. Investors and business people will also benefit from a stable political system, diverse economy, competitive taxes and Queensland’s close proximity to Asia-Pacific markets. We welcome people, both interstate and international and recognise the valuable contribution that they can make to our great state. So choose Queensland and share in our quality of life, our business rewards and our economic future. 6 | Queensland Fast Facts Lifestyle Political Economic Legal • Queensland has an excellent • Queensland’s political • Our economy has grown Queensland has a quality of life - pleasant stability and solid rapidly, outperforming the solid and stable legal subtropical environment growth make for an OECD average, and is framework including: investment-friendly forecast to enjoy 6% • affordable housing, a world business environment growth in 2015-16 • effective regulation of class education system and contracts, loans, banking, advanced health services • we belong to one of the • we have a high quality real estate and the top 10 most politically labour-force - highly stock market • an average of 263 days stable countries in the world educated and efficient with of sunshine each year that boasts a AAA credit low levels of absenteeism • full protection of rating from all three major intellectual property • 7000 km of coastline and rating agencies • the eighth-most resilient and patents a myriad of waterways economy to economic • our pro-growth strategy cycles in the world (IMD • effective dispute • more than a million square encourages business and World Competitiveness resolution practices. kilometres of tropical wetland employment growth with Yearbook 2014) and outback to explore low costs and intellectual property laws that respect • an advantageous foreign • clean, green environment and protect intellectual investment environment – free from serious animal property rights. international investors can and plant pests due to generally repatriate all strict regulations capital and profits to their own country • our population is projected to double to around 9.1 million • a sophisticated, reliable and people by 2056 highly efficient infrastructure relative to other high growth • an enviable lifestyle – destinations worldwide Australia is number two in the world on the ‘where • world class to be born’ index - best telecommunications countries for a healthy, infrastructure with safe and prosperous life well-serviced road, rail, (The Economist sea and air transport. Intelligence Unit, 2013). 7 | Queensland www.business.qld.gov.au Business and industry portal: Investing in Queensland. Accessed 10 June 2014. Our economy and business opportunities Queensland has great advantages for migrants, including a safe, stable economy, a