Storms, flood and the pandemic have barely slowed Ipswich’s rapid population growth in the first three months of 2022.
Growth, Infrastructure and Waste Committee Chairperson Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said there had been a slight dampening of key residential development figures, but overall growth was still strong in Ipswich.
“Council’s latest quarterly planning and development report card showed signs of a slowing with the COVID-19 Omicron variant outbreak, followed by storm and flood impacts,” Mayor Harding said.
“Other external factors such as increased cost of living and challenges in the building supplies delivery chain may also be a factor.
“This has been reflected in lower figures in new housing lots created and approved, development applications lodged and determined, and the number of new dwellings.
“But we still had 1,093 new residents in Ipswich between January and March this year, taking the City’s population total to 241,413.
Artist impression of Ripley town centre.
“Ipswich is the fastest growing local government area in Queensland and the continued population growth is a vote of confidence in the city’s affordability, abundant lifestyle offerings and exciting new businesses and industry possibilities,” Mayor Harding said.
Mayor Harding said an additional 393 dwellings were built in Ipswich between January and March, bringing Ipswich’s total to 87,931.
“Ripley was the growth hotspot this quarter, with 77 new homes and 235 new residents, followed by Spring Mountain, Redbank Plains and Deebing Heights,” Mayor Harding said.
Read the 1 January to 31 March 2022 Planning and Regulatory Services Quarterly Report Card
online on council’s Planning and Development website.
Growth, Infrastructure and Waste Deputy Chairperson Councillor Paul Tully said the quarterly report had a number of figures relating to liveability in the City.
“Ipswich added more than 14km of new pathways and bikeways to our network, encouraging greater use of active transport,” Cr Tully said.
“An extra 3.87ha has also been added to council’s network of local parks in the first three months of this year alone, and close to 10km of new local roads were built.
“The most common request council received from the public was regarding long grass, with 672 requests about overgrown private properties.”
Councillor Tully said the quarterly figures also showed the importance of responsible pet ownership to Ipswich households.
“More than 33,000 animals are registered with council,” Cr Tully said.
“Five of the top 10 customer service requests received by council were about dogs.
“A total of 772 requests from the community were about unregistered or roaming dogs, dog attack, dog noise nuisance or a dog fencing issue.”
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