Rockhampton's time will come soon: Terry Ryder

If Rockhampton was located somewhere else – like Toowoomba or Cairns or Townsville – it would be blipping on investor radar screens across Australia.

Not that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with Rockhampton’s location. It’s just that it shares its spot in central Queensland with a couple of headline acts in the national property sphere, Gladstone and Mackay.

Gladstone has been the market everyone has wanted to be in lately, although many have discovered its rising market a couple of years too late, as Australia’s No.1 industrial city is heading into a correction phase, as bulk new supply floods into the market.

Mackay is the rising star, nicely located to benefit from activity in the established Bowen Basin mining province and the emerging new boom region of the Galilee Basin. It has significant export facilities, which will be expanded soon, and new rail links are planned from the Galilee Basin west of Emerald.

Mackay’s rents have risen significantly, and so have sales volumes, so price rises appear inevitable.

Meanwhile, Rockhampton is flying under the radar screens of most investors. But its time will come – and soon.

Rocky has greater significance than many realise. It’s larger than Mackay and Gladstone, with a population around 110,000, and is the admin capital of central Queensland (a recent State Government strategic plan nominated Gladstone as the industrial hub and Rockhampton as the government and business capital).

It markets itself as the beef capital of Australia. One or two places around the nation might challenge that, but there’s no doubt that a large chunk of the local economy spins on Rockhampton’s links to the beef cattle industry. In May 2012 Queensland Premier Campbell Newman was one of 20,000 people to attend the opening day of Beef Australia 2012. There are two large abattoirs in Rockhampton.

The Rockhampton district is also supported by horticulture, magnetite mining & magnesia production, salt, silica sand & limestone extraction, explosives manufacture, electricity generation, defence training & logistics, retail trade, education services, health & community services and tourism.

Queensland Rail has a large workforce in the city, which is the meeting point for the main north coast rail line and the line to the major coalfields to the west. Coal trains regularly pass from the west to the coal port of Gladstone to the south.

The coal-fired 1,440mw Stanwell Power Station is 30km west of Rockhampton. The station's electricity generation units were given a $27 million overhaul in mid-2012.

Tourism is a large employer, boosted by the Keppel group of islands off the Capricorn Coast,

A key part of Rockhampton’s appeal is its relative affordability. While typical houses in both Gladstone and Mackay cost in the $400,000s, it’s still fairly easy to find homes in the $200,000s in Rockhampton.

There are some major economic boosts on the Rockhampton horizon. Two new export port facilities in planning, both located halfway between Rocky and Gladstone. Both are billion-dollar projects promising thousands of jobs.

Both have attracted considerable opposition on environmental grounds – but, this is Queensland, where ruling politicians don’t even know how to spell environment much less make a decision on ecological grounds.

There are a number of new property developments happening in Rockhampton, including a new Quest serviced apartments hotel, several medium-sized retail developments and new housing estates. Infrastructure upgrades includes local roads, an electricity substation and local medical facilities.

One note of warning for investors who like Rockhampton’s prospects: the city has been whacked by the weather in recent years and you would be advised to check out which locations are most likely to flood and which are not, as the city sits on the banks of the Fitzroy River.

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au