There I was doing my homework. Industriously researching the geography, sociology, economy and ecology of Central Victoria with a mind to reside there.
As I reviewed and referenced by dint of my web browser, I honed in on specifics that seemed to serve me -- "us" really as it is a plural thing: me and the missus -- as working criteria.
Before I could say "Eureka Stockade, I have found myself in Bendigo (or Ballarat)!" we realized that Queensland had its own Bendigo (or Ballarat) by the name of Gympie.
Gympie isn't anywhere as big as these southern cities.: 14,000 inhabitants compared to over 80,00 plus for either of the two Vic locations.
But if Gympie was in Victoria it would be utilized and gentrified the same way that Ballarat and Bendigo have been by the Victorians. On a railway line -- the urban train network -- 2 and a half hours from the Brisbane CBD; in the Mary River valley with a gold seam that had been mined since the 19th century.
The irony is that despite the analogies, Gympie is a forgotten niche primarily because real estate and settlement in South East Queensland is obsessed with the sea. Harvey Bay to the north; and Noosa and the Sunshine Coast to the south east, attest to the fact the invading sticky treacle of development dollars have simply passed Gympie by so that the lifestyle dollar could purchase ocean views.
In the nineties for a time, Harvey Bay was the fastest growing region in Australia. To get to it the retiring grey hairs trekking north for the sunshine had to pass through Gympie in their quest; but the property largesse seems to have missed Gympie.
So housing -- good housing -- is cheaper than in Brisbane.
Three trains per day -- including the fast Tilt Train -- to Brissie or back -- and a lot of excellent assets, as country towns go, Gympie is an attractive proposition.
While the Mary River floods -- as rivers are want to do -- it is a river that still runs free after we all beat the state government and stopped the dam at Traveston.being built. So the local, unique and protected lung fish, Mary River Turtle, and Mary River Cod Fish still have a show of surviving in the catchment.
So the move, if it eventuates, has historical context. With the Traveston dam campaign still fresh, just to the north,forming the eastern shoreline of Harvey Bay, Fraser Island was saved from loggers in another great victory for the Australian environment movement.
