Queensland regions make up most of the negative regional numbers in the latest CoreLogic report for the year to June 2018.

By its exclusion from the table Cairns pretty much by default becomes the top regional performer outside SEQ. However, this could be looking in the rear view mirror and a lagging indicator on an annual basis. If there is a surprise in some more recent data it is how fast some coal mining centres are turning around: Coal fires up.

I prefer Emerald as a Queensland regional coal bellwether perhaps because I spent 7 years there. Some lost, not all. In FNQ the mining activity is weighted to bauxite around Weipa. This hasn’t been on the coal and iron ore rollercoaster but has recently been a positive tailwind included in commentary from the Airport.

Note: This is not financial advice. Personally I wouldn’t touch a mining town. In the 1997 Asia financial crisis I suggested to BHP that they should just give up the entire CQ mining town of Dysart to settle a native title claim. I was wrong but not alone.

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