Charters Towers: Is this the best town for treechangers?

The number of city dwellers moving to regional towns has soared. Here’s one town that ticks all the right boxes.

Is this the lucky town?

Charters Towers, 130km west of Townsville, is booming.

It has jobs galore, affordable housing, an abundance of good schools, plans to improve the hospital and a heritage streetscape built on the back of the gold rush 150 years ago.

The grand buildings were so impressive at the time, locals called it ‘The World’.

The town has had its ups and downs since then, most recently when the droughts hit hard.

But the price of beef and gold, the industries the region mostly relies on, along with sugar cane, have surged.

General view of Charters Towers – Scott Radford-Chisholm

The result is graziers are “now earning more money than ever before and spending it”, according to Mayor Frank Beveridge.

“They’re investing in the future, upgrading vehicles,” he said.

“There’s now a waiting list for Toyotas.”

There are more than 180 jobs going on Seek jobs website at the moment and range from mining drillers to bank clerks, retail assistants, school office staff, council co-ordinators and real estate property managers.

There’s even a few $200k plus a year roles for engineers and project managers.

Work on Big Rocks Weir, a water catchment project, is about to start and will bring jobs and water security to the area.

The community is celebrating after Harvey Norman decided to open in Charters Towers. Picture: Photography By Scott Radford-Chisholm

“We are crying out for skilled labour, there’s trucks in the mines and retail is booming,” Mr Beveridge said.

“We have jobs for doctors and nurses, builders and tradies.”

Last year, the number of inner-city families moving to regional Australia increased by 40 per cent and that’s only expected to grow.

Many are making the move for a better lifestyle and bigger, more affordable homes, even more pertinent now due to the cost of living crisis.

However, mass migration has caused real issues in communities less prepared.

Many beachside towns, from Sydney to Brisbane, and places like Wimmera, a Victorian border town, have seen house prices and rents skyrocket, due to limited stock.

While city professionals arriving in places like Warrnambool, another Victorian town, have found they can’t work because they can’t get childcare.

Charters Towers is booming, after some tough years. Picture: Scott Radford-Chisholm

A recent report by Infrastructure Australia on infrastructure gaps in regional areas, found 60 per cent of communities identified a shortage of housing stock, both social and private.

Other issues included poor mobile connectivity, a lack of public transport and water security concerns.

Mr Beveridge said Charters Towers was ahead of the curve and had been planning for this boom for years.

A new housing estate is underway, concentrating on affordable housing for incoming families, with 5000 sqm blocks starting from $90,000.

To accommodate those working families Charters Towers Kids Early Learning Centre is looking to expand, to boost its 83 places, by another 60.

Charters Towers Kids Early Learning Centre manager Jaylene Davis. – Scott Radford-Chisholm

Dalrymple Trade Training Centre has also increased its teaching staff by 40 per cent in the last six months, with expectations that next year’s cohort will double in size.

And, one of the private schools, All Souls St Gabriels School is investing in additional buildings, facilities and practical workshops.

New businesses have opened including Harvey Norman, a coup for a population of just 11,700.

Childcare manager Jaylene Davis said some of the new families coming in were more culturally diverse.

“They are bringing in new skills and new knowledge,” she said.

Charters Towers Kids Early Learning Centre manager Jaylene Davis with Elsie McKellar (1yr 2 months.) – Scott Radford-Chisholm

“It’s something we’ve needed. The growth is supporting new jobs and new possibilities.

“There’s a lot of movement and expansion in the town.”

It’s even got coffee shops Melburnians would be happy with.

For those who have already made the city to country switch, they say it’s a no-brainer, especially if you can keep your city wage working from home, while taking advantage of the cheap housing options.

Deloitte Digital Director and mum-of-two Lorrae Strahorn, 40, and her husband Tim, a relationship manager for an American bank, did just that.

They both negotiated with their companies so they could work remotely, and swapped their 3.8m wide terraced house in Melbourne for an old Queenslander-style home on a 1000 sqm block, which they then renovated.

Tree changers Lorrae Strahorn, husband Tim, Lincoln, 9, and Fletcher, 6, moved from Melbourne to Charters Towers in regional Queensland for a better life and bigger home and haven't looked back. Picture: Scott Radford-Chisholm

Now they’re building their dream house on a 20 acre block they bought two years ago for $100,000, a third of the price of a one bed unit in Melbourne.

The median price for a three-bed house in Charters Towers is $205,000. In most cities you can’t even buy a one-bed unit for that price.

“We wanted to move to the country to give our kids a big backyard and somewhere they could climb trees,” Ms Strahorn said.

“That wasn’t possible in Melbourne.”

Ms Strahorn said the family’s Tesla – the only one in Charters Towers – stills turns heads in town, but no trip takes longer than five minutes, which cuts back on all those wasted hours stuck in city traffic.

The abundance of schools for the size of the town is extraordinary.

As a regional centre for education, country kids come to the town to board.

So, there are 400 teachers across eight schools.

Lorrae Strahorn working from home in Charters Towers. Picture: Scott Radford-Chisholm

Ms Strahorn said the school fees for their two boys, Lincoln, 9, and Fletcher, 6, were about a tenth of the price of the schools they were looking at in Melbourne.

Meanwhile, camping and fishing trips are on their doorstep making weekend escapes “much easier”.

The pristine wilderness of the area was showcased on the reality TV show Australian Survivor, which filmed its latest series nearby.

Mr Beveridge said Charters Towers, like other Aussie country towns, saw a population decline from the early 2000s until around 2019, with a shortage of jobs a real issue.

But it appears that the lucky town has well and truly turned around.

“There’s a buzz around Charters Towers,” Ms Strahorn said.

“People are seeing the potential.

“Friends say they wish they could do what we have done, and I tell them, they can.”