Future Cairns: City rivals capitals, other regional centres says Urbis director Kate Meyrick
Bold decisions are needed now to ensure Cairns fully capitalises on its “rock star” position to seriously rival major cities in the next 20 years, according to planning experts. How we compare.
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Bold decisions are needed now to ensure Cairns fully capitalises on its “rockstar” position to seriously rival major cities in the next 20 years, according to planning experts.
A Mission Fit index created by Urbis has put Cairns in a prime position to become a regional economic superstar, ahead of other cities.
Urbis director Kate Meyrick said the index measured cities using 51 objective indicators from six sub industries — people, planet, performance (economic), positivity, place and public transport (and other connections).
And Cairns is the “undiscovered rock star”, she said.
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Ms Meyrick said Cairns’ economic performance had outstripped other regional cities with investments into the hospital, university and marina bolstering momentum for economic opportunities.
“Cairns has a unique value proposition, incredible depth of natural resources, it’s close to Asian markets, it has a growing population, diversity of regional landscapes and lifestyle,” she said.
“I call it Queensland’s Far Northern powerhouse.
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“If we are able to capitalise on intrinsic competitive advantages now then we have a huge amount of wind in our sails.”
Urban assets that reinforce culture and creativity, investing in festivals and arts, boosting the CBD to be a place visitors want to spend time in, increased affordable housing and greater public transport links were Ms Meyrick’s key starting points for improvement.
“Effort placed now has to be in the more localised connections, and capital effort into streets, squares, gardens, and cultural spaces … to build that lifestyle,” she said.
“Building affordable quality homes in amenity rich places (and) in doing that being really careful we’re not consuming more land then we need.
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“Tertiary education for local people, upping the level of kids staying in school.
“Reducing the level of underemployment – they’re doing a job when they could do a higher value job … and attract and retain internationals.”
Ms Meyrick stressed the importance “bold decision making” to place Cairns in a groundbreaking position in the next 10 to 50 years.
“We need to be able to build the workforce faster, attract human capital,” she said.
“Paying people more doesn’t actually keep them there, it’s about building lifestyles that’s appealing to them.”
Ms Meyrick will reveal full details of Cairns’ score and ranking in comparison to other cities at a special Future Cairns event on September 20.
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Originally published as Future Cairns: City rivals capitals, other regional centres says Urbis director Kate Meyrick
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