Where the businesses actually are

Bundaberg, Fraser Coast, Gympie, North Burnett, South Burnett and Cherbourg, across 48,502.7 square kilometres with 330,788 residents and 25,098 businesses at 30 June 2025. The main centres are Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Gympie, Kingaroy, Gayndah and Childers. Agriculture runs at an index of 2.91 and manufacturing at 1.13, the highest manufacturing index of the six sub regions. This is the oldest sub region on the page, at a population weighted median age of 49.3 years at 30 June 2024, with Fraser Coast at 51.9 years. Fraser Coast grew its business register 5.6 per cent over 2024-25, the fastest of any regional council.

Bundaberg held 7,542 businesses at 30 June 2025 and approved $1,337 million of non-residential building in calendar 2024, more than the Gold Coast at $1,113 million or the Sunshine Coast at $670 million in the same year on the same series. The Port of Bundaberg sits about 17 kilometres north of the city and is operated by Gladstone Ports Corporation. Around it, the Bundaberg State Development Area was declared in February 2017 across 6,076 hectares, established in response to growing demand for land for port related and industrial activities, with five precincts covering port related industry, infrastructure corridors and support industry, industry investigation, agricultural and rural activity, and environmental offsets. The composition of that $1,337 million approval figure is not published, so no explanation for it is offered here.

Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Tiaro, Gympie and the Urangan Boat Harbour. The Queensland Government groups the two councils at a 2024 population of 178,134, forecast to 221,000 by 2046, with construction, manufacturing, rental hiring and real estate, health care and agriculture as the top output industries, and names the Urangan Boat Harbour master plan among its projects. Fraser Coast approved $600 million of non-residential building in 2024 and recorded an 8.5 per cent unemployment rate at the 2021 Census, the highest of any council of scale on this page.

Rockhampton, Gladstone, Livingstone, Banana, Central Highlands and Woorabinda, across 117,588.0 square kilometres with 241,735 residents and 19,616 businesses at 30 June 2025. The main centres are Rockhampton, Gladstone, Yeppoon, Emerald, Biloela, Moura and Blackwater. Agriculture runs at an index of 3.15, mining at 2.22 and electricity, gas, water and waste services at 1.50, the only sub region above the state share on that last one, which is what power generation, alumina refining and gas processing look like on a business register.

The Port of Gladstone handled total throughput of 111.7 million tonnes in 2023-24. Gladstone Ports Corporation owns and operates cargo handling facilities including the RG Tanna Coal Terminal, described by the corporation as one of the world’s largest coal export terminals, and it also operates the Port of Rockhampton, the Port of Bundaberg and the non operational Port of Maryborough. The Gladstone State Development Area covers 26,934 hectares, and the Stanwell to Gladstone and Callide infrastructure corridors are separately declared State Development Areas linking the power precincts to the port. Gladstone held 4,238 businesses at 30 June 2025 and 2,694 mining employee jobs in 2021-22.

Rockhampton held 5,723 businesses at 30 June 2025 with construction as its ABS main industry, and carried 2,474 mining employee jobs in 2021-22. The Gracemere Industrial Area is named by Rockhampton Regional Council as one of its business and investment focus areas, alongside the Rockhampton Region Centres Activation program. The city sits at the centre of a beef region and at the head of the $1.98 billion Rockhampton Ring Road. A Rockhampton sale is a regional services and distribution sale rather than a mining one.

Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday, across 90,140.2 square kilometres with 192,302 residents and 17,547 businesses at 30 June 2025. The main centres are Mackay, Moranbah, Dysart, Middlemount, Clermont, Glenden, Airlie Beach, Proserpine, Bowen and Collinsville. This sub region carries the highest mining business index on the page at 2.91 and the other services index of 1.81. It also recorded the strongest entries to exits position of the six sub regions in 2023-24, 2,401 entries against 1,981 exits, a ratio of 0.83 that matches south east Queensland. The Greater Whitsunday Alliance publishes $87 billion of annual economic output and 107,889 jobs supported across the three councils.

The single most important named place on this page for a mining services seller. The Queensland Government describes Paget as home to over 500 mining and manufacturing businesses and the largest mining services industrial precinct in the southern hemisphere. Mackay alone holds 1,272 other services businesses, 11.5 per cent of its business base against 5.57 per cent for Queensland, and carried 6,936 mining employee jobs in 2021-22, the largest single count in the state outside Brisbane. A vendor in Paget sells into a buyer pool that knows exactly what it is looking at, because a buyer wanting a Bowen Basin services business looks in Paget first. The Resource Industry Network, the Mackay based peak body for the mining equipment, technology and services sector, has been operating for 25 years.

North Queensland Bulk Ports operates Hay Point, Mackay, Abbot Point and Weipa. In 2025-26 Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal moved 60,246,672 tonnes and Hay Point Coal Terminal 37,447,234 tonnes, a combined 97,693,906 tonnes of metallurgical coal 40 kilometres south of Mackay. Abbot Point moved 33,071,960 tonnes and the Port of Mackay 3,549,214 tonnes, including petroleum 1,863,675 tonnes and raw sugar 787,945 tonnes. The Mackay State Development Area was declared in February 2024 across 907 hectares, 137 hectares next to Racecourse Mill and 770 hectares at Rosella. The Abbot Point State Development Area was declared in 2008 across 16,885 hectares about 20 kilometres north west of Bowen and holds the coal terminal, Gilmour Space’s Bowen Orbital Spaceport, Hillery Quarry and the Bowen Rail Company Kaili Provisioning Yard.

Townsville, Charters Towers, Burdekin, Hinchinbrook and Palm Island, across 80,035.5 square kilometres with 247,234 residents and 17,723 businesses at 30 June 2025. The main centres are Townsville, Ayr, Home Hill, Ingham and Charters Towers. It is the only sub region where health care and social assistance runs above the Queensland share, at 1.15, and it has the lowest agriculture index of the six at 1.86, because Townsville’s business count dilutes the cane and cattle councils around it. Hinchinbrook is the oldest council area in Queensland on this extract at a median age of 52.4 years, and it lost more than one business for every entry in 2023-24, 137 exits against 90 entries.

Townsville held 13,122 businesses at 30 June 2025 with construction as its main industry. The Port of Townsville describes itself as northern Australia’s largest container and automotive port and the country’s leading exporter of copper, zinc, lead, sugar, fertiliser and molasses, handling more than 30 commodities, with a $1.6 billion port expansion plan. The Channel Upgrade was completed in 2025 at $251 million, widening the channel from 92 metres to 180 metres at the inshore end, reclaiming 60 hectares and allowing vessels up to 300 metres. The Townsville State Development Area was declared in 2003 across 4,915 hectares and holds or adjoins the Sun Metals zinc refinery, the Glencore Xstrata copper refinery, the JBS Australia abattoir, the Aurizon Stuart intermodal facility, the Pacific National rail freight terminal and the Origin Energy Mt Stuart plant. The Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct is named by the state as the region’s industrial precinct.

Nineteen councils from Cassowary Coast in the south to the Torres Strait in the north, across 203,517.6 square kilometres with 302,105 residents and 26,108 businesses at 30 June 2025. The main centres are Cairns, Port Douglas, Mossman, Mareeba, Atherton, Innisfail, Tully, Cooktown, Weipa and Thursday Island. It is the only sub region where construction rather than agriculture is the largest division, and the only one where accommodation and food services runs above the state share, at 1.35. Douglas Shire, which holds Port Douglas, carries 147 accommodation and food services businesses out of 1,477, 9.9 per cent of its base at an index of about 2.5, the highest of any council researched for this site outside Noosa. The state records three million tourists visiting each year, with no reference period published.

Cairns held 15,166 businesses at 30 June 2025 and 1,922 mining employee jobs in 2021-22. The Cairns South State Development Area was declared in November 2018 and varied in February 2020 across 1,159 hectares in two separate areas, with precincts for intermodal transport, rail dependent industry, high and medium impact industry, sugar industry support operations, infrastructure corridors, environmental management and rural uses. The Coordinator-General notes that a large share of land inside it is freehold and that there are no current plans for acquisition. The Tropical North State Development Area was declared in April 2019 across about 14 hectares in the Cityport precinct of the CBD next to the Port of Cairns, to support tourism and act as a cruise ship gateway. HMAS Cairns, the slipways and the aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul businesses are the defence and marine base, and Barlow Park is named as a 2032 Games venue.

Eighteen councils across 771,542.8 square kilometres holding 42,944 residents and 4,916 businesses at 30 June 2025, at 0.06 persons per square kilometre. The main centres are Longreach, Barcaldine, Winton, Blackall, Tambo, Jundah, Windorah, Boulia, Bedourie, Mount Isa, Cloncurry, Julia Creek, Richmond, Hughenden, Normanton, Georgetown and Croydon. At 30 June 2024, Longreach held 3,758 people, Barcaldine 2,917, Blackall Tambo 1,969, Winton 1,141, Boulia 479, Barcoo 317 and Diamantina 271. Agriculture is 39.95 per cent of the business base at an index of 4.91, rising to 65.1 per cent in McKinlay and 64.4 per cent in Etheridge. Professional services runs at 0.29 of the state share and health care at 0.30. Mount Isa is the only council in regional Queensland where fewer than half of registered businesses are non employing, at 49.9 per cent.