Tablelands buoyed by agriculture as northern Australia's biggest rural population reaches 50,000

Tucked into the lush highlands west of Cairns is northern Australia's largest rural population, and it is booming again with agriculture seemingly the primary catalyst.

The Tablelands in Far North Queensland now has a residential population of more than 50,000 people, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

South African-born farmer Francois Osborne is one of them.

Ten years ago he and his two brothers left their home country and, after considering destinations from Canada to New Zealand, settled in Australia's tropics.

"The future in South Africa, [especially] in agriculture, was not that bright back then and [even] still," he said.

"We decided to go and find a new home."

The brothers started farming broiler chickens and avocadoes, and have recently expanded into macadamias.

Mr Osborne said the region's water supply, including Tinaroo Dam, had been a factor in their relocation decision.

"It was very important for us to have water security," he said.

"We could see some opportunities here in the north and that was a big attraction for us."

The family grew up farming sheep, cattle, and broadacre crops, and considered places such as Western Australia's Wheatbelt region, but ultimately the far north provided new possibilities.

"We sort of decided to go the other way and start something new, which was the chickens and the horticulture," he said.

"Horticulture is, financially, it's a lot more viable. I think at the end of the day there's just a lot more money in horticulture than what there is in broadacre."

Fruit and veg farming driving growth

Cairns-based Cummings Economics principal Bill Cummings said the Tablelands had "continued to grow" with the population increasing from 40,019 people in 2001.

"A lot of that has been because its rural industries have been expanding, and that's particularly in the horticultural industries," he said, noting tourism and retirees as other factors.

He said the Tablelands had bucked the trend of falling rural populations, even before the widespread regional migration during the COVID pandemic. 

"Populations had been falling in a lot of rural areas, particularly those that weren't increasing the value of production from their rural industries," Mr Cummings said.

He said the trend for rural industries to substitute labour with more efficient machinery had stymied population growth in parts of rural Australia.

"Rural industries generally have been achieving strong growth in productivity and requiring a lower workforce to produce a given level of goods," he said.

Mr Cummings said, in the past, tropical and northern Australia had faced more challenges than southern Australia in terms of everyday living and agriculture.

"But of course they're catching up," he said.

"As technology is developed, and markets, and the remoteness of the area is broken down by improved transport … all these factors are coming together to see regions like far north Queensland grow faster than a lot of other regional areas of Australia.

Local farmers see growth continuing

FNQ Growers president and farmer Joe Moro said agriculture-adjacent industries had also contributed to jobs and growth in the Tablelands.

"You have all the supplies and service industries … and they employ significant [numbers of] people," Mr Moro said.

"From our understanding, for every 100 megalitres of water, four jobs are generated from horticulture. So it's a significant employment provider within the Tablelands."

Mr Moro said despite technological advances horticulture was still labour-intensive, and he expected it would continue to be.

"Predominantly, everything is handled by hand," he said.

"As we become more dependent on AI and robotics you'll see clusters of people living in a lot of these towns providing those services."

For the Osbornes, the move to the Tablelands has reaped more than just avocadoes.

Mr Osborne said his brothers and their wives now had families.

"The community in the far north is definitely very welcoming," he said.

"Especially when the kids started school together [they had] all the play dates and it was no issue settling into the community.

"This is our new life now and everyone is happy."