Over-50s Resorts Spark Infrastructure Concerns in Growing Australian Coastal Town

An afternoon stroll on a quiet shoreline with her sandy, joyful golden retriever encapsulates the reason Joanne Ballard retired on the Capricorn Coast.

"It's just wonderful. We really enjoy being here."

The grandmother moved to the area in 2021 with her husband after working for decades in Gladstone and western Queensland.

But her idyllic adopted hometown of Yeppoon is undergoing a transformation.

Four over-50s lifestyle resorts have been approved for the area in recent years, totalling more than 1,350 new homes, with construction now underway on one of the projects.

An extra two facilities, with a combined 612 homes, are also being assessed by the local council, and Ms Ballard is worried about the potential pressure on already-stretched local resources, including the region's 22-bed hospital.

"To have this concentrated number of over-50s in this smaller area, I just don't believe that we have the facilities to be able to deal with that," she said.

Livingstone has been among the fastest-growing local government areas in the state in recent years, alongside the Fraser Coast, the Lockyer Valley and the Scenic Rim.

According to state government data released in December, the area's population reached almost 44,000 people last year, a more than 2 per cent jump, well above the state's overall growth of 1.76 per cent.

Ms Ballard is worried the influx will push the sleepy beachside community to breaking point.

"We've had people that are on the waiting list for years trying to get into the [three local] aged care facilities, and then you're going to bring a demographic into an area that isn't ready for it," Ms Ballard said.

'We cannot put a gate up'

With a housing crisis and aging population, Australia has seen a surge in popularity in recent years for "land lease communities", where residents buy the home, but lease the land.

Drawn in by the appeal of low-maintenance housing and close community living, the sector is now worth about $12 billion nationally, according to the Property Council of Australia.

But experts say their booming popularity, which coincides with a population surge in coastal communities, leaves several regional Queensland towns facing the dilemma of balancing growth with pressure on existing infrastructure.

Queensland University of Technology senior lecturer in urban and regional planning Mark Limb said the rise in these sorts of developments happened alongside regular population growth in the state, but especially in places with "high scenic amenity".

"Generally, growth is a good problem for communities to have. It does mean much more economic vitality … the problem comes when the infrastructure investment doesn't keep up," Dr Limb said.

"It's a very common planning issue to have to manage growth in this fashion."

It is a problem the Livingstone Shire Council is well-versed in.

"We have virtually zero rentals. We have people living in cars," Mayor Adam Belot said.

He said the council was working on several key road upgrades to keep up with the population growth.

"We're [also] advocating for more police, more teachers, a whole range of services, but ultimately the local government can't fix everything," he said.

"The reality is we cannot put a gate up on the Rockhampton to Yeppoon Road and say, 'No more people.'"

Cr Belot said that, as the over-50s lifestyle resorts had not been seen on the Capricorn Coast before, development could also drive upgrades in infrastructure and, in turn, essential services.

"[And] if we don't believe that the network can cater for that [development], then we will say no," he said.

Two projects being assessed

Of the approved developments, three from companies Ingenia Lifestyle, Sargeant Planning and Lincoln Place, will be built in Yeppoon, while the fourth, from Palm Lake Works, will be in nearby Emu Park.

The Lincoln Place development was initially knocked back by the Livingstone Shire Council, before the company moved to take the matter to court.

The matter was resolved outside of a trial, with an amended application approved.

The two projects currently being assessed are both proposing to build in Yeppoon, from previously affiliated but now separate companies GemLife and Living Gems.

Public submissions for the proposals closed this month, with a decision on both due in August.

Ms Ballard gathered more than 40 signatures for her submission against GemLife's 317-dwelling proposal.

She was concerned about Queensland Health data, which showed admissions at the local hospital increased by almost 90 per cent in the December quarter, compared with the same time the previous year.

However, GemLife said about 80 per cent of the people buying into its regional over-50s communities were relocating from the local area.

A sentiment supported by the Property Council of Australia.

"Land lease communities are growing because they respond to the simple reality that people need more housing choice at every stage of life," director of the body's land lease division, Tom Court, said.

But Ms Ballard said there was no guarantee the potentially almost 2,000 new homes would be filled with existing residents.

She implored the council to "look at the bigger picture" when making its decision.

"Don't just focus on the here and now, because this is going to have implications for way down the track."