New Australian visa holders will be funnelled into regional cities

Planners are looking at more creative ways to handle Australia’s booming population by looking at ways to encourage new migrants to move into Queensland’s regional cities.

Australia Visa

New Australian Visa holders could be directed to regional cities like Townsville.

Townsville, in Northern Queensland, has been singled out as the perfect regional centre to help soak up a booming national population and new Australian Visa arrivals.

Population Minister Tony Burke said Queensland's policy of developing regional centres to accommodate Australian immigration could be applied nationally.

Mr Burke said he was impressed with the vision of the Queensland Government in proposing a second capital in the north as well as the concept of "second-tier" cities, which would take the pressure off the capital city.

Townsville has been identified by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh as a possible “second capital city”, which would help with a better population spread across the state.

Mr Burke said he was not convinced Australia would reach a population of 40 million any time soon and that Australian immigration was only a one part of the population debate.

He agreed that one way to influence where people settled was to identify places with the highest growth potential and feed new investment into those areas.

The Australian Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people lodge their Australia visa applications with the Australian Embassy.