Mayor Paul Antonio and
CEO Brian Pidgeon
1.1 Mayor and CEO welcome message
Welcome to the Toowoomba Region, a region rich with
tradition and bold with ambition.
Our region is recognised as one of Australia’s most
diverse and stable economies, with robust commercial
and industrial enterprises. The industry sectors that drive
the region’s economy include education and training,
finance, oil and gas servicing, agriculture, health care
and social assistance, wholesale and retail trade, public
administration, manufacturing and coal mining.
Recent economic modelling from the Australian Bureau
of Statistics (ABS) and the Australian Tax Office (ATO)
show the region’s Gross Regional Product (GRP) is moving
towards $10 billion with a growth rate of 3.21 per cent
during 2014-15. Further, for the same period, our region was
one of only four of the top 10 ranked regions to increase
our percentage of Queensland’s overall GRP. Toowoomba
is now ranked seventh ahead of major centres Ipswich and
Cairns and just behind sixth-placed Logan.
Home to around 14,473 businesses, Toowoomba is also
the gateway to Queensland's resource-rich Surat Basin.
Our proximity to this region, coupled with our strong
economic indicators cement the region as a competitive,
diverse economy base.
a new jet-capable airport, the commencement of
construction of the TSRC (Australia’s biggest ever inland
road project) and our place on the proposed Melbourne
to Brisbane inland rail corridor, will open remarkable
opportunity for the region to become a leading intermodal
transport hub for Eastern Australia.
Through this enhanced connectivity to national and
international markets, there is more opportunity than ever
to take our rich agriculture sector to new heights. We now
have the ability to take the best produce Australia has to
offer to the rest of the nation and the dining rooms and
boardrooms of Asia.
Our future is bright and there has never been a better
time to live, visit and invest in the Toowoomba Region.
This report captures our main achievements from the last
financial year to show how we have been performing on
Council’s vision for the 2015-16 financial year.
We are elevating these qualities, resources and
opportunities through a newly elected team of Toowoomba
Region Councillors and an Executive Management Team
who are committed to delivering high-quality, value-formoney services to improve our community.
Our GRP figure is a result of significant increases across
financial and insurance services, construction, agriculture,
health care and social assistance sectors. There has
been more than a decade of consecutive growth in this
region and this underlines the diversity and depth of the
local economy.
Toowoomba is well placed to continue this substantial
growth. Recent major infrastructure projects including
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CHAPTER 1 Our region at a glance
Paul Antonio
Mayor
Brian Pidgeon
Chief Executive Officer
TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL Annual Report 2015 - 2016