IPSWICH is shaping to be Queensland’s fastest-growing city over the next 25 years, after recording the highest increase in residential dwelling approvals in the state.
The State Government and Ipswich City Council agree there will be an explosion in population growth and the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data supports this with dwelling approvals surging by 34.7 per cent since last year.
But they disagree on the number of jobs that will be generated in the city.
The state’s recent draft South East Queensland Regional Plan forecasts that 327,000 more people will call Ipswich home by 2041 (up from 193,000) but there will be only 65,000 new jobs.
It predicts a future city of commuters who travel back and forth to jobs in Brisbane.
That in itself creates infrastructure challenges through increased pressure on the already strained Ipswich Motorway and public transport system.
While Mayor Paul Pisasale believes the State Government needs to urgently address these issues, his council pictures a future a lot different to the regional plan’s vision.
“I’m working towards 400,000 jobs, not 65,000,” Cr Pisasale said.
“Every day I say one thing in the morning, ‘create jobs, create jobs, create jobs’.”
While 400,000 is beyond a realistic scope, Cr Pisasale believes a higher proportion of the population can be employed in Ipswich by 2041.
To achieve their goal, council is encouraging expanded retail to meet population growth demands, a boost in entrepreneurship and growing existing industry strengths underpinned by Defence, food processing and transport.
The council plans to accommodate this around a series of employment hubs rather than a single CBD.
This week the council released the final blueprint for its $150 million Ipswich City Square renewal project, which will begin next year.
The council owns the majority of the buildings in the square and will demolish several to create an open space and entertainment precinct that is more of a recreational area than retail hub.
“Every CBD around the country is struggling, so we decided to go for a city of centres,” Cr Pisasale said.
“We’ve given the city a heart transplant and are allowing other CBDs like Springfield, Ripley, Brassall, Yamanto and Goodna to develop as strong regional centres.”
Innovation is being encouraged through the council’s Fire Station 101 – a start-up incubator set up in the city’s old fire station this year. Sixty-one members have joined since March.
Commercial developers have responded to the increase in residential projects around the city.
“Next week alone I’m opening two new shopping centres in Ipswich,” Cr Pisasale said.
That includes the Redbank Plains Town Square, which has grown from about 6000sq m to 27,000sq m and will feature 67 stores including Coles, Target, Woolworths and Aldi.
FKG Group senior safety adviser Dan Turnbull said he had inducted 3000 workers on the site, which had about 220 construction workers at a time.
The construction jobs and retail jobs left afterwards are part of the answer to growing Ipswich’s economy, Cr Pisasale said.
“Ipswich has got to be part of a solution in southeast Queensland because if Ipswich doesn’t grow and other regional cities don’t grow, the city of Brisbane becomes congested,” he said.
“We’ve got to start taking some of the big industries like we are doing with TNT, DB Schenker, Northline, Bombardier.”
With hundreds of thousands of Ipswich residents predicted to be employed in Brisbane, infrastructure would need to be seriously upgraded.
“We will take this population but we can’t do it without some support and we need the infrastructure,” Cr Pisasale said.
“Public transport in Queensland is rubbish.
“You can’t stop the railway line at Springfield, you’ve got to keep it going to Ripley, you’ve got to keep it going to the RAAF base and then loop back into the city.”
RAAF base Amberley is itself undergoing a $1.5 billion upgrade and will be home to 2000 more base staff.
But already roads to the base are failing to meet the demand.
The Sunday Mail understands the State Government is close to contributing funding to an upgrade of the Cunningham Highway between Yamanto and Ebenezer Creek.
It will deliver a new interchange, connecting the Cunningham Hwy, Centenary Motorway extension and Western Ipswich Bypass but would require federal funding.
The State Government has already set aside $200 million for Ipswich Motorway upgrades and $44 million in capital works projects at local schools.
It has also committed in-principle support for a major upgrade to the Ipswich Turf Club.
State Member for Ipswich Jennifer Howard said recent ABS data showing dwelling approvals to October had risen from 3428 to 4618 was proof of the city’s future and ability to create jobs.
“The great news locally is that Ipswich is leading the state,” she said.
City-within-city punches above weight
A BOOMING micro-economy has given Greater Springfield an unemployment rate that’s half that of Ipswich as a whole.
New analysis of the economic impact of the city-within-a-city shows that almost half of all the jobs growth in Ipswich over the past 15 years has been created in the private development.
“The heavy lifting has been done by us,” Greater Springfield Corporation founder and chairman Maha Sinnathamby said.
The jobless rate among the master-planned community’s 34,000 residents is 3.8 per cent, compared to 7.8 per cent across the Ipswich region.
The report by consultants Urbis says the 8800 jobs created in Greater Springfield between 2001 and 2016 account for 43 per cent of the region’s jobs growth in the same period.
Mr Sinnathamby, who turned 77 yesterday, said the community’s success demonstrated the power of establishing a private corporation to generate and implement a vision for growth.
“But only if it’s the right developer. You have to have a long-term commitment. You must have a social conscience and an obligation to building a better society.’’
Now in its 25th year, Greater Springfield is on course for a population of 130,000 by 2035.
Mr Sinnathamby said it would be up to future residents to decide if they want to remain part of Ipswich or become a city in their own right.
While many large housing developments around the state were “parasitic’’ – feeding off infrastructure and facilities provided by ratepayers and taxpayers – 90 per cent of the investment in Greater Springfield was private money, Mr Sinnathamby said.
“A lot of money flows from here and is used to upgrade other parts of Ipswich.’’
The Urbis report says the $400 million of construction expenditure in the Greater Springfield/Redbank corridor during 2015-16 was the sixth highest per capita across the state, excluding Brisbane – outstripping cities including Townsville, Rockhampton, Mackay and Bundaberg.
Mr Sinnathamby said the total economic benefit generated by the community was $600 million a year, “and increasing at 18 to 20 per cent per annum’’.
Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said: “Greater Springfield is a major economic powerhouse and one of our key regional centres,’’ but he said it was part of a bigger Ipswich story and should remain part of the city.
“The last thing people want is more politicians.’’
The growth across the whole region was ‘’incredible’’ and Ipswich’s expansion was lifting the pressure off Brisbane. The emerging Ripley Valley would be even bigger than Springfield.
Originally Published: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/