Frequently Asked Questions

The Tweed Growth Management and Housing Strategy (GMHS) responds to the priorities of Tweed Shire Council. Its purpose is to guide housing and employment opportunities throughout the Tweed Shire over the next 20 years. The GMHS will establish a framework to manage the sustainable development of the region so that the Tweed is ready for the future. It aims to guide growth in a way that maintains the Tweed’s desirable lifestyle, strong community, unique character, and environment. Additionally, it continues to offer opportunities for Tweed residents to thrive.

The Issues Paper is the first of a number of deliverables for the GMHS. It is an important evidence base document that will set the direction for subsequent phases of the GMHS by establishing the key issues, challenges and opportunities facing the Tweed Shire over the next 20 years, in the context of population and employment growth. 

The Issues Paper presents the key findings from phase one of the project including: 

• Background review of the current planning and policy context

• Demographic and employment data

• Initial community and stakeholder feedback. 

Where can I view the Issues Paper? 

The Issues Paper will be available for download on this page from Tuesday 25 October 2022.

Council resolved to prepare a GMHS at its Planning Committee Meeting of 10 December 2020. The resolution required Council to prepare and fund the GMHS as a priority of the 2021/22 Budget and Delivery Program. When the Department of Planning Industry and Environment (DPIE) endorsed the Tweed Rural Land Strategy, it supported Council’s intent to prepare a strategy that considers the broad strategic context and implications of defining the housing and associated employment needs for the next 20 years. In addition, Action 1.3 of the North Coast Regional Plan 2036 also requires Council to prepare a growth management strategy. Preparation of the GMHS also fulfils a number of requirements identified in Council’s Local Strategic Planning Statement – 2020, and Community Strategic Plan 2017 - 2027. 

The Tweed Shire has experienced sustained growth over the past few years, and this is expected to continue. Growth both challenges and provides opportunities, so understanding what future population and employment growth may occur in the Tweed over the next 20 years is an important first step in preparing the GMHS. Population and employment growth are influenced by a wide range of factors such as availability of affordable housing, access to jobs as well as a range of lifestyle factors.

Much of the recent growth in the Tweed Shire is due to its enviable lifestyle, natural amenity and proximity to a range of employment opportunities both within the Tweed and across the border in South East Queensland.

• Tweed Shire had an estimated resident population of 97,15 in the 2021 Census. 
• In 2020 Tweed welcomed its highest number of new residents. 
• Population growth in the Tweed is largely driven by new residents arriving from across Australia. 
• The population of Tweed Shire is anticipated to increase by 31,682 people over the next 20 years - from 97,151 persons in 2021 to 128,833 persons in 2041. 
• The number of people employed in the Tweed Shire is anticipated to increase by 10,214 jobs over the next 20 years - from 36,455 in 2021 to 46,669 in 2041.

In this project, population projections provide an important baseline, benchmark or starting point that allows us to evaluate alternative approaches to managing our changing population and employment needs over time.

The population projections we use do not represent a target population, but play a critical role in informing Council decision-making Council about what type of infrastructure is needed, where and when.

The current projections are based on a range of information available at this time, and represent assumptions we made based on the available information.

In the next phases of the GMHS, we will develop and test options against these baseline population projections and as the project develops, further information will become available which may result in changes to the population projections.

The role of the strategy is to propose options for the future and modify the population projections, if needed, based on new knowledge and revised assumptions.

When it is finalised, the GMHS will have established an agreed approach to projected housing and employment land needs in the Tweed and throughout the 20 year life of the Strategy, reviews and updates will be routinely undertaken to keep the document and projections up-to-date.