The MITEZ Region

The MITEZ Region comprises nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Northern and North-West Queensland as shown in the map below. These LGAs are Mount Isa City, Cloncurry Shire, McKinlay Shire, Richmond Shire, Flinders Shire, Dalrymple Shire, Charters Towers City, Thuringowa City and Townsville City.

Townsville / Thuringowa and Mount Isa are the major centres in the region. Other centres include Cloncurry (Cloncurry Shire), Julia Creek (McKinlay Shire), Richmond (Richmond Shire), Hughenden (Flinders Shire), Pentland (Dalrymple Shire) and Charters Towers (Charters Towers City)

The MITEZ Region covers an area of 271,732 square kilometres, which represents around 16% of the area of Queensland.

According to the Census, there were 186,707 persons residing in the MITEZ Region in 2001. This was 11,594 more persons than in 1996, equating to average annual population growth of 1.3%. Cloncurry (4.5%), Thuringowa (2.9%) and Townsville (1.3%) recorded the strongest annual growth rates between 1996 and 2001.

Looking ahead, the MITEZ Region’s population is projected to grow at an average rate of 2.7% through to 2011 to 213,096 persons, with the strongest growth forecast for Thuringowa, Townsville and Cloncurry. By comparison, Queensland population growth is forecast at 1.6%.

Population – MITEZ Region
LGA	1991	1996	2001	2006	2011	Avg. % growth 1996-2001	Avg. % growth 2001-2011
Mount Isa	24,849	22,777	21,475	21,371	21,240	-1.2%	-0.2%
Cloncurry	3,365	3,838	4,792	5,052	5,194	4.5%	1.6%
McKinlay	1,301	1,417	1,368	1,329	1,281	-0.7%	-1.3%
Richmond	1,065	1,168	1,023	1,010	1,000	-2.6%	-0.4%
Flinders	2,543	2,222	2,152	1,993	1,839	-0.6%	-3.1%
Dalrymple	3,575	3,641	3,783	3,762	3,715	0.8%	-0.4%
Charters Towers	9,047	8,842	8,454	8,248	8,042	-0.9%	-1.0%
Thuringowa	34,701	44,189	50,966	59,276	67,529	2.9%	5.8%
Townsville	87,297	87,019	92,694	98,043	103,256	1.3%	2.2%
MITEZ	167,743	175,113	186,707	200,085	213,096	1.3%	2.7%