The Housing Situation in Townsville: How Bad is it?

Is it stopping 3 Brigade getting up to full strength as an armoured brigade or is that due to other factors?

In April 2023, the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) stated that bases would have to be developed in northern Australia. Six months later, the Government gave its approval to the outcomes of the Review… stating that an armoured brigade would be located in Townsville. Media headlines reported, ‘New Capital for the Australian Army’.

At that time, Townsville, with a population of around 198,000, was home to about 5,000 ADF personnel at Lavarack Barracks and RAAF Base Townsville. The DSR meant that this number would increase by at least an additional 500 in 2025.

The ability of Townsville’s infrastructure to absorb such a significant influx of Army families was always doubtful and should have been recognised as such! Another headline soon followed: ‘Townsville Facing Housing Crisis”.

In 2023, Townsville City Council recorded its lowest number of new residential house approvals in five years. Housing vacancy rates were sitting at 1%, following an increase in regional migration over the previous year. As sometimes happens, media reports on the Townsville accommodation market vary quite a bit. From a conservative perspective, however, house prices presently average about $575,000 (rent $520); apartments $431,500 (rent $440). Approvals have been given for over 400 houses to be built, however, the first of these won’t be completed until FY 25/26. [Have ADF rental allowances caught up with recent local increases, one has to wonder?]

There can be no doubt that Townsville’s infrastructure wasn’t ready for the additional numbers necessitated by 3 Brigade becoming an armoured brigade (and still isn’t). [Not forgetting that these ‘extras’ include the first ever armoured engineer squadron with its assault breaching vehicles and armoured bridge-layers.]

While obviously housing is urgently required, it’s to be expected that quite a number of vehicle hangers will be needed as well.

This must be one of the great ‘oversights’ of recent military history. Despite the Department of Defence having all the advance information about the DSR, they failed to anticipate the shortfall in Townsville’s infrastructure.

As a result, 3 Brigade (and Townsville) is at its maximum capacity with just a single armoured unit (rather than an armoured brigade’s normal two).

The challenge … how to avoid this oversight becoming a laughing matter.

The solution: make 1 Armd Regt a non-combatant ‘emerging technologies’ test bed and keep it in Adelaide for as long as it takes to complete the necessary infrastructure in Townsville.

Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Cameron, MC, RAAC (Ret’d)

 

FILE PHOTO (23 April 2025): 2nd Cavalry Regiment welcome its second tank squadron at the T4 (D Squadron) Raising Ceremony at Lavarack Barracks, Townsville, Queensland. Photo by Private Jessica Gray.

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