In January 2011, Brisbane was hit with major floods. I just left before they hit! There was $5.8Bn in damages to real estate and infrastructure so the Commonwealth Government will pay 75% of costs including buildings, roads and $25,000 per small business and $1000 per household. Many houses got no money as the insurance companies said the floods were an act of God in their case and copped out. It was better to get stuff away from flood prone areas on back of truck if warned rather than try to get repairs done after the floods hit via insurance claim or government handout. Woolworths, NSW Govt and plenty of others have donated millions towards the flood victims in Queensland.
Brisbane City Council provides an early warning alert service for floods and storms. They email or SMS you with info.
Most inland Queensland was flooded plus a Cyclone in January 2011 hammered Queensland. Wivenhoe Dam water was released in January 2011 which flooded the Lockyer Valley and killed several people instead of releasing it gradually before it got to critical levels (99%). Locals tried to sue the SEQwater Water Authorities but lost (SEQwater - Qld Govt Inquiry).
In April 2011, Councillor Campbell Newman stepped down as Mayor of Brisbane and is now Leader of the Queensland Opposition and the Liberal National Party as the ALP did such a bad job of supporting flood victims in the January 2011 Brisbane floods. Campbell Newman is a member of the Liberal National Party and was the only Liberal Government leader as mayor of Brisbane in the whole of Australia till NSW and Victoria fell to Liberals in 2011.
This is a growing area. The Queensland Government does heaps more for the state than in New South Wales where private enterprise seems to take over a lot of the supporting roles to the detriment of rural towns outside of Sydney - no dollars means no services in country NSW e.g Telstra slacking off when there are no dollars outside of Sydney CBD. This leaves rural towns in NSW to either do it tough and use their brains to outwit the greedy city boys or give up and move back to the city again with all its inherent cost problems when you are small. So Queensland beckons with its low costs and easy to do business.
In 2008 we moved to Brisbane for Web work. We did some local work but are now finding our own way and getting our own business going again in a hurry. Luckily payments from NSW started coming in around this time so I was not so hard up to pay regular bills and give me a chance to adapt or return to NSW again which I did when I was kicked out. Queensland is much more advanced than when we left in 1988 to seek work in Sydney however it is still very hard to get going if you are new and unknown. Queensland is a bit old fashioned re needing to have a formal office or people will not do business with you.
In February 2010, I found a Web customer in Sumner Park industrial estate, west of Brisbane towards Ipswich an up and coming area of South East Queenland, the growth area of Australia. To finish the Website off quicker, I visited the customer onsite in March 2010 via train to Darra and 452 bus to Sumner Park or 460 bus from city. This was because I moved my registered office to Rochedale, Logan, QLD from December 2009 to September 2010. In September 2010 I returned my registered office to Orange because of logistics and lack of sales in Queensland. This was the first success with my Web business in Queensland since starting in 2008 to try and get customers up here! Many thanks to family who helped me get a base in Brisbane while travelling around NSW, ACT and Victoria the past 2 years! Centenary Computers sell second hard ex Government IT equipment and parts at Sumner Park - good find! 50% of businesses in Sumner Park were under water up to the roof in January 2011 floods.
In February 2011, I reconnected with an old Web customer in Coorparoo who moved from Sydney to Brisbane around 2008 to redo this Website.
Queensland is a very go-ahead place for running a small business if you can get it started up here which can be difficult if you are new. There is plenty of money in QLD for existing businesses, not poverty stricken like NSW where everyone stops paying for services and leaves us in the lurch for months unless pushed by late-fees or in-person visits! NSW is a dog in comparison to QLD's vigor for its own businesses. In September 2008, NSW went through recession.
The Queensland Government is the best place to start when doing business in Queensland. They respond and have good scope for business with plenty of relevant seminars to get businesses investing in the area. They also use the internet extensively to service the state which is far-flung and stretched out - 1400km from Brisbane to Cairns/Townsville.
Brisbane is much more pro open-source software based development (which is what I do to a large degree) than Sydney who do mostly software development on commercial software platforms like Microsoft or Oracle. (PHP Meetup Brisbane has over 310 members whereas Sydney only has 50!) Brisbane is not scared to talk about or use PHP and MySQL so I will keep in touch with Brisbane PHP and MySQL developer communities as they are very profitable for networking in Queensland. Also the Queensland Government is looking at the advantages of developing an open-source software based ICT sector which is very encouraging after being stuffed around in Sydney in open sourced based systems which they judge are cheap and nasty which they are not! (Aug 2008)
Red Hat the largest Linux distributor has its Asia-Pacific Office in Brisbane, QLD. Red Hat has launched a new Brisbane Headquarters in August 2008, so open source is very much alive and well in Queensland compared to other states. I think I've made the right business decision to relocate our Linux-focused business to Brisbane from Sydney and Orange.
Solar Winds, system support software, are base in Brisbane as is Oracle and IBM! Solar Winds has excellent service!
In late 2007, we contacted Prof Brian Lovell, ITEE, University of Queensland and are working on their open source project IAPR Commence, a conference paper management system, which was developed in PHP and MySQL by IT honours students, where I studied my BSc in 1981-87. We extended it and used it in one of our projects, donating our improvements back to the project in return for use of the open source software which saved us $1000s! This is a win-win situation of the IT industry feeding back into the academic circles to help develop students for the badly lacking industry! There is a 50% drop in software engineers graduating from Australian univerities from 2002-2007 so we as an IT industry need to start taking an interest in the universities such as the University of Queensland ITEE and start fostering local talent so the software engineering industry doesn't die in Australia and be outsourced totally to India.
In 2009, Arjen Lentz started Upstarta a lean business incubator in i.lab, Toowong QLD. I met Arjen at Griffith Uni in April 2010 at BarCamp Queensland where he gave a presentation on Upstarta methodology.
iLab is a new UQ IT business incubator. Jentla is there and doing very well with opensource Joomla extensions (Alabama US project) Jan 2010.
As Queensland businesses are parochial and will not do business with you for ages (too laidback) unless they know you first which can lead to cashflow shortages, we are now doing business interstate in NSW and ACT to keep afloat and gave up waiting for the first Queensland job to materialise. In May 2008, we nearly got a Sydney customer to service them from Queensland via the Internet. People in Queensland from interstate are easy to deal with. Most people are only interested in helping themselves and not lending a hand to others like us, which makes it very tough to get going. Queensland is like country NSW in that it is refuses to reply to mail or phone calls to start a job. They call when they are ready which makes it impossible to get anywhere!
In March 2010, I attended via train from Park Rd Brisbane to Helensvale, BarCamp Queensland at Building 30 (Multimedia), Griffith Uni, Southport and found Gold Coast Innovation Centre (GCIC). Gold Coast is a strong centre for IT startups! I saw them at CeBIT in Sydney 3 or 4 years ago pushing for me to move my IT business to near Bond Uni Gold Coast Robina campus once.
In October 2010, I attended BarCamp Queensland at The Edge near State Library and gave a talk on Violin and IT.
In April, July and October 2010, I attended University of Queensland 100th anniversary celebrations including an ITEE alumni dinner at which I met many very interesting fellow graduates in IT.
Translink go cards for bus, train and ferry in Brisbane area can be topped up over the Web or using EFTPOS at train stations - very convenient!
Bus trips in Brisbane can get quite expensive. In one day with many trips I paid $8. Brisbane needs a weekly pass like Canberra's ACTION.
As of March 2009, the Queensland Government had a $1.6Bn AUD deficit, 3 times worse than NSW ($640M AUD). So all the businesses are waiting for the Queensland Government to pay instead of doing business with other businesses so the Queensland Government has gotten into too much debt! There was no change in government on 21 March 2009 so the deficit will stay high leaving higher Commonwealth Government aid necessary to get Queensland into good economic shape again!
By March 2010, Queensland is smarter and pushing hard in amazing ways to grow its economy. It is selling off QR Freight for $3Bn, track and rollingstock in one package. However the January 2011 floods wiped out all the capital raised by the QR float.
In 2011/12, Queensland predicts a $4.058Bn deficit due to the floods and Cyclone Yasi in January 2011.
The yuppies (25-30 year olds) are cliquey wherever they are (NSW, QLD). Queensland seems to be overrun with yuppies in Brisbane at present due to them moving up from NSW and Victoria to save money. Everywhere in Brisbane there are people under 30 who are me-focused. This is improving for people over 40 to get on today in Brisbane who lived here in the 1980s and are more group-focused and social. Now they are all selfish and inward looking and very hard to work with unless you help them directly. They don't see the bigger picture. If you are over 40, take care as you may be pushed to one side by anti-social youths. The only positive side is young people are enthusiastic and able to change quicker than older people so Queensland has become more dynamic. See about Generation Y's habits in the economy - no assets, hyperactively living it up. I had a customer like this in Wollongong!
Queensland Employment, Economic Development and Innovation and Queensland Justice are a lot tighter up here and you feel more protected than in New South Wales where no-one helps the worker, just big business. WorkCover Qld is more modern and uses social engineering and decentralised management, not the Dickensian English laws in New South Wales which load all costs onto central management to no real benefit. People here are much more oriented to small businesses like us and we find it easy to do business in Queensland. Fair Work Australia administers wages.
People although not as rich as New South Wales pay their bills and are happy for you to see them again.
Drivers' licences and other transport matters can be handled online via the Queensland Dept of Transport and Main Roads's Website, a great idea considering Queensland is a large state and this will reduce the paperwork and make life more efficient when dealing with Queensland Transport. Also driver's licences are much less expensive than in NSW.
The only downside is finding accommodation near transport as Brisbane transport only runs on specific routes and often cuts out after 6pm unless it is a major road, not as extensive as Sydney or Melbourne. You may need a car, take a taxi or stay overnight near the Brisbane Transit Centre to link accommodation and transport needs e.g. early interstate or interurban buses or trains.
It is very hard to make money busking in Brisbane. The Brisbane City Council only has auditions for permits in Queen St Mall every 3 months and I could not pass the audition although I have played in Sydney, Melbourne, Orange and Castlemaine.
QUT is building a Science and Technology Precinct in 2012 near Goodwill Bridge, Gardens Point, Brisbane CBD. QUT ran CCI Symposium in 2011 on convergence and digital media. IT and media companies are supported in an incubator at QUT Creative Enterprise Australia.
As of about 2006, Brisbane now has a great Busway from the CBD to Logan on the southside - it only takes 30 minutes to get from the city to Eight Mile Plains, a huge improvement. Also there is Translink which lets customers travel between zones all day for a very reasonable rate. Brisbane also has a new bus/pedestrian/cycle bridge between Dutton Park near Annerley on the southside and the University of Queensland which connects to the city, Eight Mile Plains and Carindale - great for getting to the University of Queensland for people on the southside without having to go through the city and out through the congested traffic on the northside. There is a new Busway being built from the Buranda/Stones Corner area along Old Cleveland Rd all the way to Capalaba. Elected in March 2009, Cameron Dick, is MP for Greenslopes, Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations. The seat of Greenslopes covers the new buslane along Old Cleveland Rd. The buses go about 80kph despite traffic jams on the nearby Pacific Motorway as the Busway is a separate road running parallel to the Pacific Motorway, making for very efficient and frequent bus services on that route. Tunnel at Buranda has been started in July 2010 for the Eastern Busway.
In 2009, a Melbourne 27 year old youth Nicholas Bolton, director of Australian Style Investments Pty Ltd, fiddled with the share value of BrisConnections (ASX:BCS), the tollway near the Brisbane Airport. Bolton pocketed huge income ($4.5M) via a deal with management to rollover rather than vote to oust chairman (story) This is linked to via the Gateway Arterial Road. I used to collect statistics of traffic accidents when I worked for the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the 1980s so know all these bottlenecks and blackspots.
Auckland Airport invested in Mackay and Cairns Airports in January 2010 owned by North Queensland Airports (NQA) to increase Asian tourism and mining traffic.
There is a new cross-river tunnel called North-South Bypass Tunnel (Clem 7) built and operated by RiverCity Motorway finished by March 2010 (not 2009) linking north and south side. However by 25 Feb 2011, the Clem7 went into administration as traffic volumes were way down on expectations (too expensive and drivers were too canny). The grinding machine is nicknamed 'Matilda'. The road enters around the Exhibition Grounds near Royal Brisbane Hospital and comes out near Kangaroo Point and Woolloongabba. This will cut down travel time. There is also a doubling of the Gateway Bridge due around 2010. There is also a widening of the Centenary Motorway linking Logan with Ipswich Motorway coming out at Gailes/Redbank due to be completed by 2010. Kevin Rudd (ALP) promised to complete this at the last federal election in 2007 to decrease traffic congestion from Ipswich to Brisbane and Logan. The whole South East corner of Queensland is a big building site! This is because of the huge increase in population from about 1 million to 1.8 million since 1988 to 2008 due to all the NSW and Victorian people migrating up to the warm climate and taking all the jobs!
In October 2010, Brisbane City Council setup City Cycle where people can rent a bicycle from a group of bicycles locked at stations around the CBD for $60.50/year subscription with first 30 minutes free then so much per hour, very reasonable.
There are no ATMs or shops in Eight Mile Plains, the nearest centre being Garden City, Upper Mt Gravatt, which is huge and right on the busway. The other ATM is at Centro Buranda shopping centre, near the PA Hospital on Ipswich Rd, Woolloongabba. Bus connections between the Camp Hill area and Eight Mile Plains are poor. The best is inbound 208 which drops you at the Buranda Busway Stop. Otherwise you have to walk to Centro Buranda, Cornwall St from Buranda Busway, O'Keefe St, about 10-15 minutes walk, and buses are only every 10-20 minutes and often 10-20 minutes late. A lot of aborigines hang around here and can be a nuisance if they are begging change or are drunk. 4 other ATMs are: Stones Corner, Coorparoo, Carina and Carindale Shopping Centre. There is a Westpac ATM at Whites Hill but they charge $2 for other banks to use it. The Buranda Busway stop is handy if you are visiting patients at the PA Hospital - there is only about a 20 minute walk from the stop to the hospital main entrance. Having a daily bus ticket is handy if you need to get to an ATM then jump on a bus and continue to work etc. 203 goes to Coorparoo where the ATM is and where a lot of buses pass which you can use to get to the busway and on to your destination. UQ buses go to the Buranda Busway stop and are usually much more empty than 111 from Eight Mile Plains.
In March 2010, the Eastern Busway is under construction from Buranda via Stones Corner to Coorparoo. In April 2011, a new bus station was been built near Old Cleveland Rd and Main Ave Coorparoo and will be finished by 29/8/2011 (Open Day 27/8/11). In November 2010, the old Myers became a markets open Thursday-Saturday. The new busway will increase trade in the Coorparoo area.
As no weekly bus passes are available on Brisbane City Council buses (Logan City Buses sell weeklies), you need a bus ticket to the nearest train station (e.g. Buranda right next to the Busway stop) and then get a refund on the bus ticket and pay the remainder for a weekly. The other way is to buy a 'go card', introduced in Feb 2008, which allows you to charge up via credit card on the Translink Website or EFTPOS at train stations or certain newsagents however go cards are only available in a handful of sites in Brisbane suburbs but have dozens of sites in the CBD - go figure! On the buses, trains and ferries, just touch the go card on the reader before boarding and leaving the transport to deduct the fare or a higher fare will be charged to average costs out.
There is a good Translink deal on weekends - off-peak daily. On that you can go on the buses, trains, ferries and CityCats within Zones 1-2 for $4.10 all day - a very good deal! Fares went up in January 2010.
There is a new Brisbane Technology Park created by the Queensland Government in Eight Mile Plains south of Brisbane which has excellent transport via the Busway and Pacific Motorway. There are many startup companies in hi-tech industries based there. We worked near here for 2 mths here during 2008 and found it has excellent facilities. (see Brisbane Technology Park Online Community) Nokia Qt is based in the Brisbane Technology Park, a leading Linux developer for KDE (Qt GUI library). Nokia has dumped Qt in favour of Microsoft Windows Phone 7 in 2011.
QCAT is at Pullenvale (west of Brisbane) - hitech CSIRO/Queensland Government manufacturing research centre.
Most internet facilities are in the CBD and are expensive. Brisbane City Council (Together Brisbane) has a free wireless hotspot in the Queen Street Mall in 2004. Libraries have limited Internet capabilities e.g. Cleveland near Moreton Bay. The State Library and The Edge nearby have wifi. In 2012, Brisbane City Council will install 20 wifi hotspots in parks (June 2011).
Mobile coverage has improved greatly for Optus in 2003-2008 in Brisbane but Telstra is still the main carrier in Queensland out of the capital city.
In April 2011, I got a Vodafone Pocket Wifi 3G modem which I can use anywhere in the house with Linux or Windows laptops so can work anywhere in Brisbane now and save heaps on bus fares going to the State Library of Qld for wifi. Coverage is great in Brisbane CBD but awful in Camp Hill. See my wireless blog for details. In July 2011 I got a Vodafone K3771 USB modem on new 850MHz network but it has no wifi. In August 2011, a new Vodafone Pocket Wifi 2 with 850MHz was released. 850MHz is better than the old network.
In June 2011, southside of Brisbane has poor mobile internet infrastructure like Western Sydney. Internet connections freeze or lockup every hour or so. Vodafone gave me discounts to keep me with them as the coverage in Camp Hill was atrocious. Vodafone and Optus fell out and are segmenting networks in Telstra exchanges leading to massive bandwidth shortages.
In Southeast Advertiser 17/8/11 p.5 there was a story on poor internet at Carindale: "Fury at home internet bills" by Josh Alston - they could only use 3G and not ADSL until NBN in 2019. This shows no enterprise is willing to invest in internet infrastructure in Brisbane as they lose money as customers are too canny to spend much leaving businesses with no option to invest to get a return. Queensland is run by the community with little for business. This may explain why Optus then Vodafone had poor coverage in Brisbane as there is no money here!
It is easy to ride a bicycle from Coorparoo to South Brisbane to visit the Mater Hospital. In South Brisbane there is the South Bank parkways and Kurilpa and Goodwill Bridges for bicycles. West End with its Boundary St cafes and pubs is very attractive nearby by bike. Montague Rd West End has an industrial estate with manufacturers. Foreign manufacturers do well in Queensland but local hitech businesses do not do well locally.
Cycling around Coorparoo, Camp Hill, South Brisbane and West End has saved me so much on bus fares. It is only 30 mins from Coorparoo to Mater Hospital in South Brisbane via Cavendish Rd and Stanley Street East along footpaths.
Transport on the Gold Coast usually runs up and down the coast. Any buses inland like to Robina from Coolangatta cut out at 8pm when you will require a taxi or car. You can catch the train to Robina from Brisbane then catch a bus to Surfers Paradise or Coolangatta. Coachtrans will pick up off along the Gold Coast and take you to Brisbane. Countrylink and interstate buses all go along the coast and stop at Coolangatta and Surfers Paradise and are usually 30-45 minutes late getting into the Transit Centre, at Roma St, Brisbane from the south. Countrylink is much easier to book over the Internet.
The Gold Coast is a very fast growing area. Businesses are booming here including aged care facilities at Helensvale. Queensland needs a quota system to stop too many elderly people flocking to Southeast Queensland where there is not enough resources to cope. Elderly people do not pay tax but cost a lot in health services to maintain, not just the age pension. The Baby Boomers will reach retirement in 2011 to 2020 when the nursing homes will be overfull and people will have to get a place in a retirement village in neighbouring rural areas to be able to survive.
In 2011, Brisbane hospitals and nursing homes are nearly full of elderly patients due to a large migration of retirees over the past 20 years to Queensland and Northern New South Wales from Sydney and Melbourne which although cheaper and warmer is finding it very hard to keep with enough resources to cope with the high demand for health services of an ageing population. Gold Coast is getting a new private hospital at Griffith University and Mater Hospital is upgrading with a new Children's Hospital near South Brisbane and QEII Hospital is expanding at Nathan near Griffith University to cater for high demand for beds. Ambulances will not take elderly people to hospital but try to keep them at home putting stress on the family or carer in return for government support for building amenities in the home, Meals on Wheels and Respite Centres for carers to cater for elderly people.
There are some ultra-conservative Christian groups in Brisbane to be wary of. Like all community groups, they just want to save money and get free support.
Brisbane is good for training, seminars or going to group meetings but not for making customers. In some ways, this is very much like Sydney when I was in Merrylands. Only bumping into prospects got me anywhere. I got no customers via my Website or emailing potential customers - they just ignore you or sponge off free information posted on my site. In the end I just invest in my own business and sometime if I am lucky I get a customer. The rest of marketing efforts to make customers do not work as people are too slack to get back to us or just want freebies.
It is very hard to get from the southside to the northside using public transport. The ferry is much quicker than taking the train or bus.
Camp Hill and Coorparoo are dying. The big Myer shop was closed but was taken over by markets. The site will not be taken over as a busway stop as the markets have a 2 year lease. Stones Corner is much more lively with a better social atmosphere and shops but in April 2011 the shops were closing. In June 2011, Stones Corner sales are doing poorly with by now 20 empty shops. Decline is escalating with large shopping malls taking away customers. They need websites! Many migrants live at Stones Corner. The Stones Corner Library is handy and the small market nearby is useful. Grindhouse Expresso is a friendly cafe with art gallery in Logan Rd near Stones Corner Hotel. They tweeted positively to me re my busking in August 2011! See @GrindhouseSC (aka Green Door Cafe and Gallery). Jan Powers Farmers Markets are on in Stones Corner on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month. I busk there.
The old bowling alley at Chatsworth Rd and Logan Rd Greenslopes is being converted into a green IGA supermarket in 2011. More upmarket business areas are developing in Greenslopes in June 2011.
CBA Carina closed in 2001. Hands On Therapy (hand and upper limb therapy) is now there. Health goes better than banks in this area. Bank of Queensland is nearby and an Australia Post agency where you can deposit cash. There must be many manufacturers near here for all these injuries to occur. I found Elio's Italian Restaurant in Winstanley St, Carina Heights which opens only at night. They had no customers when I visited. They do home delivery and have a website to make money. Fruition school tutoring is in Carina.
McDonalds Old Cleveland Rd, Coorparoo now has free wifi, very useful if you are travelling. 700 McDonalds have free wifi now all over Australia.
The only traditional protestant church left in Camp Hill is Camp Hill Church of Christ (Third St). They have plans for a youth pastor and support the local chaplain in the nearby state schools - pretty active little church! It is hidden in the back streets - turn off Pryde St from Boundary Rd or into Raven St off Old Cleveland Rd then left into Pryde St to get to it. Majestic Park Baptist became Eastside Community Church and moved to Chandler in about 2004 and Camp Hill Uniting Church merged with Norman Park Uniting Church in 2008 because they could not increase numbers in Camp Hill and folded! There is also a Charismatic Church on Old Cleveland Rd, Camp Hill. This is an ageing area and most young families have moved to Redland Shire near the sea where the land is cheaper.
In March 2010, a new kindergarten and small offices (finished in July 2010) are where the Majestic Park Baptist was corner Boundary Rd, Waverley Rd and Chatsworth Rd, Camp Hill/Whites Hill. This was after several attempts to get a kindergarten going in the old hall - a major improvement in the area.
Interstate business is better but riskier and local sales are slowly picking up after 2 years of waiting. There are low overheads but low sales because few will take any risks. All you can do up here is have fun and games, do research, plan, look after your family and make a little money. Hi-tech businesses are very small in number per capita compared to bigger states like NSW and Victoria but are growing with open source ventures in Toowong iLab. If it wasn't for NSW sales or funds, I could not stay for very long in Queensland.
This area is tougher to get into as it is distant and people are very parochial and times are tough in the sugar cane areas like Home Hill and Bundaberg. People are friendly but it takes an age to get anything going e.g. 1 year or more just to get an order or even start to do consulting due to other local problems or trips without notice due to the weather!
In 2005, equipment and phone lines tend to be pretty old and unmaintained so it is very difficult to do anything serious in this area due to lack of money and motivation to invest in their businesses - very old fashioned! Local video stores provide expensive internet and internet dialup speeds are usually around 28-40kbps due to noise on lines - no broadband in Marian or Home Hill, only Ayr, Townsville, Cairns, Mackay and Bundaberg. But there are openings to install broadband routers as more people up there get online. Broadband is very popular in country Queensland. Tropical conditions like cyclones and severe flooding can also hold up deals or even hinder getting to or from the locations like Port Douglas or Home Hill. In 2008, there is broadband in Home Hill and Ayr etc. Mining towns round Mackay have highly paid IT jobs as they cannot get anyone to move up there. Cyclone Ului hit Mackay on 20 March 2010 - 120km/h winds, 350mm rain. Mackay weather cam
Places like Home Hill and Ayr in the Burdekin, 1 hour south of Townsville, often have hints of investors like major golf complexes but one wonders when these ventures will get off the ground. Many property speculators were snapping up ultra cheap properties in Home Hill due to a price slump in 2003 when the price of sugar dropped through the floor to 6c/lb whereas US farmers were getting their sugar subsidised to 20c/lb and the Australian Government could not get sugar onto the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement agenda. Brazil with its cheap labour and plentiful land due to devouring the rainforest is proving a formidable foe. 15-20 years ago, we let them in and were training them and selling them farm machinery and now they turn around and become our competitors. It is not wise to sit on one's laurels. Always be vigilant to offshore threats from 3rd world countries creeping up on our primary producers. Local sugar cane producers wanted to produce ethanol through the local sugar mill so people could buy 10% ethanol petrol for their cars and motorbikes which was cheaper and cleaner environmentally but the Australian Government and oil refineries created a scare campaign so it didn't go ahead until 2005 when oil prices skyrocketed due to the Iraq war. Now 10% ethanol petrol is available everywhere.
From 2009, sugar prices are rising due to shortage. India triggers sugar price rise globally 9/09
As of 2004, Home Hill now has a Bendigo Bank! Before that there was only ANZ and a Credit Union and many shops had closed. It took Home Hill community 2 years to raise the funds to get the community bank going!
Cairns CBD is a risky area as there are a lot of pennyless European backpackers there who will pinch valuables out of your luggage at the drop of a hat. Only help was the Cairns Police who can take down details of losses and if they are found return them to you COD if you leave a forwarding number and address. Bundaberg Police were very laid-back and not interested in helping very much!
CDMA coverage was better in this area but has been replaced by Next G. Optus GPRS coverage is very flakey around Home Hill and North Bundaberg (north of the bridge is poor or impossible, south is OK). It is very hard to get a mobile phone except in larger cities like Mackay and Townsville. Little towns seem to just sell pre-paids and have no interest in porting your number to another carrier.
Bad areas:
Good areas: