Bundaberg has been named Australia’s most entrepreneurial city with Sydney a distant second

A regional Queensland city is punching well above its weight having been named Australia’s most entrepreneurial city – and it’s easily beating Sydney.

The Bundaberg Central Business District.

Renowned for its rum, brewed soft drinks and agriculture Bundaberg has now been recognised as Australia’s most entrepreneurial city.

Global domain register GoDaddy has put the regional Queensland city at the top of its Most Entrepreneurial Cities in Australia list thanks to a 178 per cent increase in the number of small business start-ups last year – a number that rises further to 192 per cent when accounting for the last two years.

To put it into perspective Bundaberg’s growth rate was 2.4 times higher than that of the runner-up, Sydney, which recorded a 73 per cent increase between January 2024 and December 2024.

These insights come from GoDaddy’s Small Business Research Lab, a multi-year research initiative that examines the economic impact of 300,000 Australian small businesses and explores the attitudes and experiences of their founders.

They say Bundaberg is home to businesses that range in size, particularly in the beverage sector with many prominent alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage providers based locally, cultivating a diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks founder Cliff Fleming.

Looking back at Bundy entrepreneurs who made the national stage there is Bundaberg Brewed Drinks which had its genesis when the Fleming family purchased bottling and fermenting business Electra Breweries in 1968.

Cliff Fleming (illustrated) took over the running of the company and now with son-in-law and John McLean as CEO it has an annual turnover of $240m and exports to over 60 countries.

On the alcoholic side Bundaberg Rum, can trace its beginnings to 1888 and is in the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.

And there’s a wave of emerging entrepreneurs from the city including Elisha Taderera, the founder of Home of Champions mentoring organisation and Tracey McPhee – founder of Alowishus, an app-based food ordering platform.

Then there’s also more established figures like Michael Norton, who served as Bundaberg’s Chief Entrepreneur, Janelle Gerry from Macadamias Australia and Kym Shires of the Smile Care Hub.

For the record data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reinforce GoDaddy’s research, showing that the number of businesses in Bundaberg grew from 6456 in 2018 to 7201 in 2023. The ABS also valued Bundaberg’s local economy at $5.1bn at the start of 2024.

Gas expansion

Moranbah Gas Project owner QPM Energy has strengthened its long-term future after executing two new funding agreements with foundation customer, global explosives giant Dyno Nobel.

While Dyno Nobel is considering closing its largest fertiliser plant, Phosphate Hill in northern Queensland, putting up to 500 people out of work, its funding agreements with QPM will support the development of the gas project – 120km south west of Mackay – including new well drilling and infrastructure optimisation.

The agreements include a new prepayment facility of up to $40m to support gas delivery under the new sales agreement and new additional funding facility of up to $30m, with $21m drawn to repay QPM’s existing working capital facility.

The Moranbah Gas Project, south west of Mackay.

QPM chief executive David Wrench says through the reinvigoration of the Moranbah Gas Project they have developed an “exciting integrated energy business”.

“These funding agreements with Dyno Nobel represent another important step in this transformation,” he says.

“From July 2025, the business will transition to a much lower cost structure under the new contracts with Townsville Power Station and North Queensland Gas Pipeline.”

Originally published as Bundaberg has been named Australia’s most entrepreneurial city with Sydney a distant second