Toowoomba council, census data reveals growth corridors across region, including Glenvale, Highfields, Darling Heights

Where have people been moving to in Toowoomba since 2016, and where will they keep heading to over the next decade? Some eye-opening new has revealed some astonishing trends.

Toowoomba’s leaders are preparing to lobby hard for desperately-needed infrastructure in key growth corridors of the region, after new census data revealed incredible population spikes.

The new statistics, which combine recently-released census information with projected populations from the Toowoomba Regional Council, has highlighted the key areas of focus for politicians and lobbyists while approaching higher levels of government.

The figures are based on level-two statistical areas, which groups several suburbs and localities into one.

West Toowoomba, which includes areas like Glenvale, Wellcamp, Westbrook and Cotswold Hills, saw 21 per cent growth since 2016.

The council’s planning department expects the area, which now has 15,848 residents, to add another 8500 locals by 2031 — an astonishing 53 per cent.

Highfields, which includes its namesake suburb and localities like Kleinton and Cabarlah, has enjoyed population growth of 10.64 per cent in the past five years (now at 14,500 residents) and could add 7300 more people (50 per cent) within the next decade.

Other key growth areas highlighted by the council data were Darling Heights (23,000 by 2031, 57 per cent) and Drayton-Harristown (15,800 by 2031, 45 per cent).

Because the council completed its 2021 projections before the census data was released, it’s led to some major variations in population sizes.

For example, Darling Heights has 4600 less people (14,576) in it than the council had predicted, while West Toowoomba has nearly 2200 more than it had accounted for.

Mayor Paul Antonio said the new projections would be useful as it continued to lobby heavily for major projects like the second road to Highfields.

TRC Mayor Paul Antonio. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“Broadly speaking, one of the really serious issues is funding the necessary infrastructure we need,” he said.

“We’re talking to the State Government about this, because when you build new houses, you desperately need the enabling infrastructure for that — you need the paths, the water, the sewerage.

“We thought that we had that funding for the second road to Highfields (recently) — now our chances are less than they were.”

Wagner Corporation director Denis Wagner, whose company has been heavily involved in the economic growth of western areas like Wellcamp and Torrington, said key connecting roads should be in the pipeline for upgrades.

He also reiterated his belief the council should expand its priority infrastructure area to accommodate more of western Toowoomba.

Wagner Corporation director Denis Wagner after a press conference announcing the completion of the first buildings built at the Wellcamp quarantine facility, Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“Our position on it is the council needs to look at expanding the PIA to make more land available, to give consumers some choice,” he said.

“The council get a significant contribution from infrastructure charges when land is developed and split up and that money needs to be put into the infrastructure network.

“There are two obvious roads (for upgrades) – one is Drayton-Wellcamp Road and the other is Hursley Road.

“We also need to improve connectivity between Toowoomba and Westbrook.”

Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise CEO Ali Davenport said key growth corridors like west Toowoomba and Highfields should receive strong attention from all three levels of government.

“We need to make sure we have the infrastructure place, because we want people to be able to get around the city easily,” she said.

“You can get around the city now in 15 minutes, but we need to be thinking about public transport, and we need to make sure we have enough schools and housing.

“It’s important that people are working together, the census data is only brand new so these are numbers we need to digest.”