Walkerston Growth Profile

Walkerston is part of the traditional lands of the Yuwibara people.

Situated a few kilometres south-east of the Pleystowe Sugar Mill (1869) and a few kilometres west of the Alexandra Mill (1868), Walkerston was established as a small sugar town.

Walkerston grew rapidly in the 1970’s with the opening up of coal mining in the Bowen Basin, workers being able to live in Walkerston and commute to the mines along the Peak Downs Highway which intersects the town. A second wave of growth occurred between 2002 to 2013 due to the mining boom for similar reasons.

Outlook

A town projected to grow by 21.2% out to 2036. The current growth patterns indicate a focus on working families with children and a higher concentration of empty nesters/retirees. Future housing predominately stand-alone houses, which is line with current housing choice. Growth is anticipated to be driven by living on larger house lots in a rural setting in the Pioneer Valley with easy access to the Mackay city centre and the mines to the west.

Total Residents

Main Industries of Employment for Residents 2018

	Mining	12.5%
	Retail	9.3%
	Manufacturing	8.3%

Population by Age

Dwelling Types

Demographic Profile

A town 7 km west of Mackay.

A population of 3,300 people representing 2.8% of the total Mackay region population.

The age profile is characteristic of working families with children. 20% are aged under 15 years (Mackay region average 20.7%) and 67.4% are aged 15-64 years (Mackay region averge 66.2%).

80.4% are family oriented households. This is reflective of the age composition of the locality.

The main dwelling type is stand-alone houses representing 96.2% of dwellings.

The average household size of 2.7. This is above the Mackay region average of 2.5. This is reflective of the family oriented nature of the area.

65.7% of residents hold some form of qualification. With 13.4% a bachelor degree or higher (Mackay region average 19%) and 52.3% (Mackay region average 47.9%) a certificate level qualification.

93.9% of working age residents are employed, above the Mackay region average of 91.4%.