A satellite city of Shanghai known as an automative cluster, Jia Ding seeks to build quality of life and attract high-tech companies through a fiber-to-the-building network, science & technology investment funds, and advanced e-government programs.

Population: 1,157,381

Website: english.jiading.gov.cn

Smart21 2007

Long one of the most competitive economies in the world, Hong Kong seeks to maintain its edge with an IT transformation plan to make government more efficient, development of digital industry clusters such as Cyberport, and investments in intelligent transport and immigration to maintain its lead as a crossroads for the global economy.

Population: 6,965,000

Website: www.gov.hk

Smart21 2007

Located on the Yangtze River in Sichuan province, Chongqing was once known for its isolation behind high mountains, which led Chiang Kai-shek to make it his wartime capital. In 1983, Chongqing became the country’s first inland port open to foreign trade and was authorized to experiment with liberal economic policies. With the construction of the Three Gorges Dam nearby, Chongqing was named a “direct city” in 1997, joining Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai in independence from provincial government. Under its aggressive and popular Mayor Bo ilai, the city has grown explosively since then. In 1998, its GDP was $21 billion; by 2009, it had grown fourfold to $86bn, twice the growth rate of China as a whole. Fully 90% of the industrial goods manufactured there are sold in China. The city is investing heavily in its future by expanding rail lines, highways, the airport and digital infrastructure. Hewlett-Packard has a call center in Chongqing and plans a laptop factory. Chongqing attracts more direct foreign investment than any other city in central or western China - $2.7 billion in 2008 alone.

Population: 32,000,000

Website: www.cq.gov.cn

Smart21 2011

Every week, the city of Whittlesea gains 175 new residents, which adds up to 2,500 new households per year and makes it one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities. While residential construction is booming, however, job creation is not. Whittlesea is a large urban/suburban/rural district on the northern fringe of the city of Melbourne, where two-thirds of Whittlesea residents earn their living. The city’s business community consists of a declining manufacturing sector made up for by growing construction, retail and services sectors. Nearly 80% of its businesses are small. Only 10% are exporters and only 25% of these provide online products and services.

A Foundation of Conduit

City Council began laying the foundation for a different economy in 2001, when it started requiring all greenfield developments to install fiber-ready conduit and transfer ownership to Council. Within a few years, this asset made it possible for the city to able to attract fiber network investment into housing and mixed-use developments. The large and growing conduit system also attracted Australia’s National Broadband Network to make Whittlesea a deployment site. About 40% of the city now has access to fiber and 70% of premises are expected to receive 100 Mbps service by 2015. User adoption is among the fastest in the nation.

Whittlesea is already proving attractive to some large-scale industrial developments spilling over from Melbourne, including a wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market, as well as food processing, logistics and warehousing. While welcoming this growth, Whittlesea has focused on bringing its existing small business community into the digital age. An ICT scorecard project has evaluated ICT adoption at 1,600 businesses. Owners can now compare themselves to their peers, which creates pressure for progress. A Digital Enterprise program offers the technology training they need to increase their competitiveness. The Council is also encouraging the start-up and relocation of home-based businesses that can use ultrafast broadband to provide high-value services. For citizens, Whittlesea’s libraries offer training, technology and a demonstration center called the Digital Hub, where they can see 100 Mbps service in action.

Digital in Place of Physical Infrastructure

The emphasis on broadband and ICT has already moved the dial in terms of educational attainment. In 2011, just 21% of residents had completed higher education, compared with 32% in 2014. Professionals in the workforce have jumped from 17% of the total to 25% over the same period.

Each year, Whittlesea conducts a household survey to find out what is most on the minds of its residents. According to the latest survey, it is all about infrastructure failing to keep pace with strong growth, whether it is roads, public transportation, schools or social services. The city’s Intelligent Community strategy aims to help the community use ultrafast broadband to obtain services, expand e-commerce, improve education and reduce demand for transportation, so that the growth engine can keep running while delivering a higher quality of life.

Population: 197,500

Website: www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au

Smart21 2007 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015

The Sunshine Coast is a metropolitan area that spreads across 2,291 square kilometers of Australia’s coastline about 100 kilometers north of Queensland’s capital city, Brisbane. A sub-tropical paradise of beautiful beaches and scenic mountains, the Sunshine Coast has experienced boom times, almost doubling its population since the 1980s. Transforming from a tourism and retirement relocation, which drove the growth of construction and retailing, into a diverse growth region built around balancing the economy, environment and community needs.

Sunshine Coast Council worked with leading businesses, industry and the Queensland Government to develop the Regional Economic Development Strategy (REDS) 2013–2033 which provides a 20-year vision and blueprint for sustainable economic growth. This strategy is currently undergoing a 10-year review, as the region focuses its sights on the opportunities and legacy potential as a delivery partner in the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Sunshine Coast economy continues to evolve into a modern, smart economy based on sound growth across numerous high value and knowledge-based industries including professional business services, innovative manufacturing and high tech.

Sunshine Coast International Subsea Telecommunications Cable

Sunshine Coast Council is the first local government in Australia to invest in an international submarine cable, connecting to the new Gigabit Maroochydore City Centre and providing Queensland’s first direct international data and telecommunications connection to global networks. Working in partnership with the Queensland Government, the project delivered a 550 km undersea fibre-optic cable which connects the Sunshine Coast to the 7,000 km Japan–Guam–Australia South (JGA–South) submarine cable, via the cable landing station in the Maroochydore City Centre.

The Sunshine Coast International Subsea Telecommunications Cable (SCISTC) is part of the Smart Cities Framework and Implementation plan. The purpose of the plan was to ensure major infrastructure projects such as the new greenfield Maroochydore City Centre addressed the growing emphasis on digital infrastructure and connectivity to deliver data for decision making. The plan also reflects the need for Council to innovate, invest in digital infrastructure, and coordinate digital work programs across all business services.

The SCISTC Project sought to provide redundancy, diversity for customers, reduced latency and connect Queensland business and consumers directly to international markets. The project also sought to stimulate investment and jobs growth on the Sunshine Coast, thanks to the superior telecommunications connectivity and data infrastructure, and serve to attract some of the world’s biggest data users to the region. Forecast to stimulate $927 million into the Queensland economy, the SCISTC will also help to change the region's economic profile from one dominated by the tourism, retail and construction industries and encourage big business to consider the Sunshine Coast as a tech-savvy region and a smart place for their business. This improved connectivity will stimulate the growth of high-value jobs and ultimately bring better data capacity for all citizens and, over time, lead to reduced data costs.

Sunshine Coast Innovation Ecosystem Development

Sunshine Coast Council recognizes that the region’s future prosperity lies in ideas, innovation and driving entrepreneurialism. The region has a flourishing innovation ecosystem, providing an ideal location for startups, scaleups, entrepreneurial talent and creativity. Innovation is the focus of three of the five strategic and performance pathways in Council’s goals outlined in its Corporate Plan:

• a smart economy (a regional hub for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity)
• a healthy environment (a reputation for innovation, sustainability and liveability)
• an outstanding organization (a reputation for implementing innovative and creative solutions for future service delivery)

Since the development and implementation of the REDS in 2013, the Sunshine Coast economy has undergone a period of significant growth and diversification. This growth, along with the impact of the global pandemic, has resulted in population expansion and urban development, and now represents a regional economy worth more than AUD $20.94 billion in Gross Regional Product (Source: NIER 2022).

The Sunshine Coast innovation ecosystem is a true triple helix which continues to evolve and mature. The ecosystem now comprises the following key pillars around which extensive activities, initiatives and programs take place:

• industry advocacy and advancement groups
• youth innovation – including investment in talent and skills
• startup and entrepreneur network
• education
• incubators/accelerators and co-working spaces
• local, state and federal government programs
• anchor institutions and infrastructure investment

The industry groups, along with regional advocacy groups, local and state government have created an intrinsically woven “fabric” of collaboration and clustering which is referred to as “The Fabric of the Region.” These key groups are now driving industry-led innovation and advancement across the region.

See the Sunshine Coast Innovation System map here.

Developing, Engaging and Retaining the Next Generation Workforce

The Sunshine Coast Youth Innovation sector is being supported like never before with numerous initiatives that instigate innovation and create tangible conduits to roles that fulfil purpose and enliven the community. The Youth Innovation Sunshine Coast group came together in 2022 to advocate and coordinate programs, events and initiatives that support youth innovation, entrepreneurship and connection to industry.

Work has occurred since 2013 to recalibrate aspects of the education and training sector’s offerings to ensure these are clearly targeted to address critical gaps in the region’s workforce profile. This assists with developing viable options for the Sunshine Coast community and meaningful career pathways within the region. A world-class education sector, outstanding research facilities and a reputation for innovation makes the Sunshine Coast an ideal destination for education and research. The Sunshine Coast has the award-winning University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), a growing international education market, extensive vocational education and training facilities and a high-performing school system.

Programs like the BiG Day In digital careers day, Generation Innovation, the Mayor’s Telstra Innovation Awards, RoboRave, RoboCoast and the Delorean Project drive a passion for innovation and STEM that enables young people to create solutions for local and global problems. Training organisations such as TAFE Queensland, Australian Industry Trade College (AITC), Knoei Colab (with their trailblazing Diploma of Entrepreneurship) all work to create alternate pathways for young people and vocational learners to upskill and find their place in the world. Study Sunshine Coast is the regional study cluster that aims to attract international students to the region and to help local young people understand the opportunity that exists for them on the Sunshine Coast, both now and into the future.

For those people who have found their way to the Sunshine Coast from outside Australia, there are multiple programs to help make the transition smoother, including cultural competency training, job readiness programs and employability and industry engagement programs including the Migrant Work Ready Program, the Multicultural Business Expo and Study Sunshine Coast’s Project Global Citizen program.

Connecting the community to their dream jobs and helping them understanding the key industries is critical in ensuring a well-informed and connected community. In early 2023 Council developed two job hubs: the Sunshine Coast Jobs Hub for all types of jobs across the region; and one specifically for students – Sunshine Coast Student Jobs Hub, where casual/part-time roles, internships and placements can be located. The Sunshine Coast Jobs Hub is the place for local businesses to advertise roles for free and even locate workers through their own profiles.

To assist in helping the business community to grow, employ and prosper, there are business skills focused programs that help small businesses to upskill and thrive with courses like the Build a Better Business Course, the Scaling Up program, UniSC Business Planning Course and a bounty of assistance through the Level Up Your Business platform. Mentoring for Growth has been a hugely successful and long-term mentoring program run by the Queensland Government, which helps small business owners to get access to experienced mentors for no cost.

UNESCO Biosphere Designation

In June 2022, the Sunshine Coast officially gained recognition as a UNESCO Biosphere, recognizing the region as an international site of excellence and an area of natural beauty. The announcement follows six years of work in communication with residents and the Biosphere Community Reference Group. This designation demonstrates the community’s ambition to live in harmony with the environment and recognises the need for responsible development. The Biosphere also delivers a range of benefits for tourism and agriculture industries and has the potential to become a magnet for global consumer demand of Sunshine Coast products, and tourism attractions.

Council, the community and the wider conservation groups are collectively committed to protecting and enhancing the region, communities, economy and natural assets. This international recognition follows a successful biosphere nomination for the Sunshine Coast, which was endorsed by Council, on behalf of the community in 2019. The nomination was informed by the community, industry, interest groups and government. Becoming a biosphere demonstrates the Sunshine Coast's commitment to remain future facing to help enhance the region’s national and international reputation and aligns with Council’s vision to become Australia’s most sustainable region. One that is healthy, smart and creative.

The Biosphere will help the Sunshine Coast:

• create a legacy for future generations by ensuring a healthy environment and liveable Sunshine Coast
• further enhance and maintain the landscape, character, biodiversity, waterways, wetlands and coastal areas
• attract more investment to the Sunshine Coast and help local business grow through the creation of niche markets for the region’s products and services, facilities and practices
• provide a premium brand to increase the value of products and services through a sustainable “Produced on the Sunshine Coast” brand
• assist to achieve planning principles of urban consolidation and sustainable design to deliver inclusive, connected and vibrant communities
• increase collaboration between schools, academia, business and government with a focus on sustainability projects

To learn more about the Sunshine Coast Biosphere, see here.

Population: 356,000

Website: www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au

Smart21 2014 | 2015 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

Top7 2019 | 2020 | 2022 | 2023

Like much of the nation, the state of South Australia has long depended on a mix of mining, agriculture and heavy manufacturing to sustain its economy. Today, all three are stagnant or declining in terms of job creation, due to slowing resource exports and the slow collapse of the Australian automobile industry. These global economy trends have put pressure on the small city of Prospect to the east of Adelaide, with its 1.3 million people.

High-Speed Access with NBN

Across Australia, the National Broadband Network Company is rolling out the National Broadband Network (NBN), replacing the old copper wire broadband infrastructure with fiber-optic, fixed wireless and satellite infrastructure that boasts download speeds of up to 100 Mbps. The city of Prospect has partnered with the NBN Company since 2012 to make the transition as seamless as possible and to make certain that all its residents and business owners know about the game-changing network now available to them. To further this effort, the Prospect City Council has posted numerous news articles about making the switch to NBN to its websites. The local magazine and newspaper have also published NBN advertisements aimed at local businesses. The City Council and NBN have held several community sessions at Prospect’s Digital Hub, and an NBN liaison has presented at multiple business networking events in the city to explain the process of switching to NBN.

While educating its citizens about NBN, the city of Prospect has also set up two other broadband projects to bring high-speed NBN access to the general population. The Broadband Cafés project offers public, high-speed Wi-Fi in a variety of cafés throughout the city. These cafés show videos about the project to their customers, which have been very well received; one particular broadband café has had as many as 17,000 views since the project began.

The city’s most recent broadband project is the Prospect Road Innovation Precinct initiative. The initiative, created through a partnership with the South Australian State government (through the GigCity program), the University sector, local coworking businesses and a property developer, is an alternative to the NBN fibre optic network installed along the Prospect Road mainstreet. This network will offer 10Gbps data transfer to South Australia’s three major universities and key industrial sites as well as inexpensive 1Gbps (upload and download) internet connections to local businesses. This “GigCity” service already has 4 key sites committed for the new service, including two existing coworking and shared office spaces on Prospect Road and a newly commissioned office development. These sites can provide additional space for incubation to assist innovative business and entrepreneurs or administrative support for the defense and space industries.

Prospect's Digital Economy Strategy

The city of Prospect has worked closely with the federal government and NBN Co to educate and support local businesses as well as residents. Together, they have implemented the “Next Generation” Digital Economy Strategy, which outlines projects and initiatives to encourage outside investment and local business use of digital technology. The city completed stage one of the strategy in 2016, launching the new Network Prospect brand and website (www.networkprospect.com.au) at the annual Tourrific Prospect Street Party. The Network Prospect website serves as a one-stop shop, promoting local businesses, investment opportunities, and economic development initiatives for the whole region. Hundreds of Prospect businesses have signed up for the site’s business directory, creating a network of local businesses with increased visibility to the community and abroad.

To further support the Digital Economic Strategy, the city rolled out Prospect Fast Wi-Fi in 2017. Prospect Fast Wi-Fi is a free public Wi-Fi system with 12 access points and 3 backhaul radio stations that offers some of the fastest free Wi-Fi available in Australia over a 500m area along Prospect Road. Plans are already in place to expand the coverage with an additional 3 access points and one more backhaul radio station, which would provide full coverage to the area around the new cinema development. The city makes anonymous usage data available to local businesses as well to let them track local retail trends.

To help citizens make better use of plentiful internet availability, Prospect established a Digital Hub in public library space with the use of federal grant money. Since its creation, the Digital Hub has delivered over 10,000 digital literacy training sessions, including a mix of one-on-one and group training sessions. Training topics include staying safe online, what options are introduced by modern online technology and apps and how to use them. Many community groups now use the computers in the space on a regular basis, including ERSRF (a group for people with disabilities living in supported accommodation), Prospect Centre (an alternative education facility), and Subatomic (a gaming group for young people on the autism spectrum). The Digital Hub also hosts tech-based school holiday activities, including green screen photography and stop motion animation creation, delivered by the Digital Literacy team at the library.

The Digital Economy Strategy also includes a busy schedule of bi-monthly events geared toward the professional services sector. The events aim to foster local business-to-business transactions, particularly for the many local businesses run from residents’ homes. In addition to networking opportunities, these events provide marketing education and guidance, including search engine optimization and social media training.

Connected Cities

The Connected Cities project, proposed by the city of Prospect and the University of Adelaide in 2017 and funded in February 2018, aims to collect data on park usage and movements in Prospect to support future IoT infrastructure. Connected Cities will set up sensors in local parks and connect them to the LoRaWan network to monitor the use and maintenance of city council assets. The sensors will allow the council to understand what is happening in local parks and tailor maintenance to specific need rather than a fixed schedule. In addition, the information will assist the facilities booking system project in finding space and time availability.

The Connected Cities project, with the help of a local IoT startup named ConnectedParks, has installed sensors in main street sidewalks in Prospect, Magill and Port Adelaide to measure footfalls. The data gathered by these sensors is used to provide information to the council, main street committees and local businesses. This will allow businesses to adapt opening hours to foot traffic patterns.

A Collaborative Community

With the City Council’s support, a pair of Prospect entrepreneurs has set up a co-working space on Main Street called Little City Studio. Known locally as “a city within a city,” Little City Studio is a collaborative working space for residents who have outgrown their home offices or who want to build networks in a relaxed and affordable environment. Little City resident businesses have access to high-speed broadband, a boardroom, training events, and a Council-sponsored accelerator program. Little City Studio has been so successful that the space is now full, and the City Council is currently considering plans for a new innovation center incorporating the Prospect Library, the Prospect Community and Civic Centres, and the Digital Hub and Gallery.

Network Prospect is a network of local businesses designed to improve marketing and networking opportunities, as well as establish digital skills workshop. The network’s website features with a local business directory to encourage visitors to “shop local.” The website includes profiles and articles for over 330 local small-to-medium Prospect businesses, with links to professionals’ LinkedIn profiles to drive local networking. Network Prospect hosts six business training and networking events each year, with an average of 60 business registrants per event. These events encourage small businesses to come and learn new skills, digital strategies and network with other local business. Network Prospect’s social media presence has grown rapidly since inception, driving 117,352 impressions on local business stories, reaching 73,538 people, with 41,400 views of video profiles of local small business people in the last 12 months.

These programs strengthen Prospect's appeal as a bedroom community for Adelaide while equipping its people and businesses for independent economic success in the digital economy.

In the News
Read the latest updates about Prospect.

Want to know more about Prospect?
Prospect was featured in the Intelligent Community Forum book Brain Gain.

Population: 21,259

Website: www.prospect.sa.gov.au

Smart21 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

Top7 2022

Melbourne is Australia’s second largest municipality and the capital of the state of Victoria. A leading financial center, this city of 130,000 is at the center of a metropolitan area of 4.5 million people and is hub for the Australian film and television industries. In 2016, The Economist named Melbourne as the world’s most livable city for the sixth year in a row.

Filling the Gaps

Australia, however, ranks 48th in the world for the speed and services available over broadband, due to a long history of monopoly and duopoly markets. That has put Melbourne’s people, institutions and businesses at a disadvantage in reaping the economic and social benefits of the digital revolution. As a midsize city, Melbourne has many competing service providers but also significant gaps in coverage outside its central business district. A group of frustrated Internet users teamed with a community-led pilot project in Melbourne to create Lightning Broadband, which uses a mix of optical fiber and wireless to connect high-rise apartments and business customers at 100 Mbps. Rolling out in Melbourne suburbs now, it is targeting a national build-out in areas underserved by private carriers and bypassed by Australia’s National Broadband Network.

Extending Education

The Melbourne metro region is home to hundreds of two-year colleges and more than a dozen universities. Nearly 47% of its population has a graduate or undergraduate degree. City government and nonprofits have therefore targeted programs at segments of the population that are not participating fully in the knowledge economy. Code Like a Girl runs a series of tech-focused events around the city. Targeting females from 13 to 45, events like Creative Coding and The Internet of (Girl) Things teach basic programming skills while awakening girls and women to new career opportunities.

A small-scale program called Life Experience Skills Sharing pairs young people of post-secondary age with socially isolated older people in sessions where the youngsters teach digital skills. While older citizens learn to navigate the digital world, their younger companions gain in self-esteem, empathy and communication skills. The annual Melbourne Knowledge Week Festival, launched in 2010, consists of conferences, workshops and demos that showcase a smart and innovative city and brings the future city to life today.

Collaborative Innovation

Two projects, one in production and the other in development, are equipping Melbourne with new innovation districts. The Advanced Manufacturing Precinct at RMIT, a public research university, creates collaborative projects between researchers and industry, and equips them with technology and equipment to speed up prototyping and design of the manufacturing process. Early results include a 3D printed spine implant and an improved car seat for the Tesla Model S.

The Carlton Connect Initiative (CCI) aims to bring together people from diverse disciplines to one precinct, where CCI will create and curate partnerships between research and industry locally, nationally and globally. It has established the Melbourne Accelerator Project, whose 24 startup teams have already created 150 jobs and generated A$10 million in revenue. LAB-14 is CCI’s first small-scale demonstration site, where 270 people are at work on projects from computing through artistic creation. When CCI is complete, it will be Australia’s largest innovation district and home to the Melbourne School of Engineering.

Helping the Homeless Online

Like many successful cities, Melbourne faces sharp increases in its cost of living and a shortage of affordable housing, both of which contribute to the problem of homelessness. Though the city offers a wide range of support services finding is difficult for the homeless because information can be outdated, waiting lists long and the rules complex. Melbourne’s answer is Ask Izzy, a new mobile website that connects the homeless, or those at risk of homelessness, with essential services. Research showed that 80% of people experiencing homelessness in Melbourne own a smartphone. Ask Izzy is a free location-based directory that helps them find food, shelter, health and other critical services. It was developed by a partnership among a Melbourne nonprofit, Google, RealEstate.com.au and News Corp Australia.

Sustaining the Community

Melbourne makes sustainability strategy a community affair. Its Smart Blocks Solar Rebate program helps apartment owners and building managers install solar panels to reduce energy costs. The installation of a solar system on common property requires the owner or executive committee to work together to develop the concept, build a business case, and engage tenants, apartment managers and suppliers. The Smart Blocks program provides advice throughout the process. It had installed 144 KW of solar through the end of 2015 and is saving apartment owners an average of A$25,000 in energy costs per year.

Melbourne’s top score for livability is partly the product of a community plan called Future Melbourne. In 2016, the city began to refresh the plan, renaming it Future Melbourne 2026, through meetings of a Citizen’s Jury made up of residents, workers and business executives. To broaden participation, it created a digital forum called Participate Melbourne, which lets members of the community contribute to decision’s shaping the city’s future. The result has been 970 ideas for projects and a program of events that engaged participation from 2,000 people. Meanwhile, the 250,000 registered users of Participate Melbourne logged more than 50,000 sessions in a single year. Working together, the people, businesses and institutions of Melbourne are building a future that leverages the city’s strengths while working to close the gaps left by the past decade of development.

Population: 128,980

Website: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au

Intelligent Community of the Year 2017

Smart21 2006 | 2017

Top7 2017

In 2011, the city of Ipswich published a 20-year economic development plan for its population of 195,000. It forecast the addition of 292,000 new residents, who will require an additional 120,000 jobs, and will live in a network of distinct communities interwoven with centers of employment, recreational facilities and green space. The plan responded to future challenges but also to past ones. Because Ipswich offered affordable housing and an attractive lifestyle, its population has grown rapidly in the booming economy of 21st Century Australia. Yet the decline of industrial employment in the 70s and 80s had left the city with legacy of long-term unemployment and bred unacceptable levels of crime and social dislocation.

Broadband Incentives

Ipswich has been quick to seize multiple opportunities to carry out the plan. The Australian government’s National Broadband Network (NBN), announced in 2009, opened the possibility of attracting significant investment into the region. Ipswich City Council partnered with surrounding city and regional councils to build a case for NBN rollout of what it termed the Western Corridor National Broadband Network. The governments mapped current and proposed broadband infrastructure, developed joint policies and solicited support from business and industry groups. Their work was rewarded in 2010, when NBN announced that two locations in the region would receive the first deployments of fiber to the premise. Work has progressed rapidly since then with over 39,000 premises now able to connect to the NBN fixed-line high-speed broadband network as of September 2017. Another nearly 34,000 premises are currently in build-commencement for FttN, FttDP, HFC, and Fixed Wireless connections. Ipswich is projected to have 100% city-wide connection by 2019.

A similar strategy has driven 3G and 4G mobile deployment. Governments combined to conduct independent testing of availability throughout the region, which sent testing vehicles across more than 2,300 kilometers of roads. The effort paid off by letting governments bring objective data to their negotiations with carriers about where towers should go to provide the broadest possible coverage. But Ipswich has been as ready to partner with the private sector as to pressure it. Acting as intermediary, Ipswich has coordinated between property developers and NBN to direct NBN investment in conduit to areas where property developers or the city are launching construction, which saves all parties time and money. The Ipswich City Council has simultaneously worked to raise awareness of the NBN deployment within the community by facilitating community education sessions, providing presentations to city stakeholder groups about the benefits and adding NBN construction impacts and rollout timings to Council e-newsletters, social media posts and advertisements. The city’s awareness campaign has already produced results with NBN’s latest report estimating that 51% of premises in Ipswich with NBN fiber connection have opted for the service, well over the state and national averages.

An Innovation Hub

Ipswich faces an unusual growth situation, having both the fastest growing population in Queensland and the youngest on average. This has put pressure on the City Council to ensure many new jobs are available when its young citizens join the workforce. Enter Fire Station 101.

Fire Station 101 is a hub for startups and innovators that provides education, mentoring and even potential funding. The hub has been open since March 2016 as a place where entrepreneurs come to build new ideas around digital technology. By raising the profile of entrepreneurship and innovation in the community, Ipswich aims to foster economic diversification while developing a skilled, knowledge-based workforce and jobs.

And it’s working. Fire Station 101 gained 50 member startups in its first six months of operation and has hosted over 150 startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses as of 2017.

In 2016, the hub began serving as home to Ipswich’s Application Studio. The Application Studio is a formal framework for city service experts, open data analysts, and innovators to collaborate in developing new city services and projects. In its first year, the program has brought in over $190,000 in new public-private funding of projects by the Ipswich City Council, the Queensland State Government, Ipswich and West Moreton Hospital, the University of Southern Queensland, Queensland Urban Utilities and Motor Trade Association Queensland. Due to this success, the Queensland State Government has allocated a further $500,000 for a new Application Studio initiative to build a schools-focused entrepreneurial program and a variety of accelerator programs.

The Ipswich Smart City Program

Building on its first twenty-year plan, the Ipswich City Council has created the Smart City Program. The program has adopted a human-centered design approach, focusing on the needs of citizens, local entrepreneurs, city workers and even tourists. The Smart City Program has three core goals: jobs, growth, and livability for Ipswich.

To meet the goal of jobs, the Council has extended Fire Station 101’s mandate to researching civic challenges in partnership with local industry and universities. Ipswich has also created a Digital Skills Initiative for all Ipswich residents, working with schools and adults in the community. The Digital Skills Initiative includes a wide range of digital skill and technology demonstration classes with many delivered for free in the city’s libraries and innovation hubs. Finally, the Council hosts the Build and Learn Fair, an event that encourages residents and visitors to build and showcase creations like robots and wood works. This event aims to give residents a hands-on experience of the new possibilities available in the Ipswich jobs market.

The City Council has adopted multiple green initiatives to help Ipswich sustain its current and future growth. These initiatives include Eco-Village Micro, a grid program with solar energy, batteries and energy trading technologies currently in development, and also a smart lighting program for the city with LEDs, sensors and data analytics for maximum efficiency. The Council is investigating converting some of its fleet to electric vehicles and is in the trials phase of autonomous public transport for the city.

As part of the Smart City Program, Ipswich has partnered with the Department of Transport and Main Roads to run the Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative (CAVI), Australia’s largest cooperative intelligent transport system program. The initiative focuses on analyzing the safety and benefits of cooperative vehicles, publicly demonstrating the technology to increase awareness and adoption and increasing technological readiness for new vehicle innovations. CAVI’s eventual aim is to facilitate a dedicated study and trial of autonomous electric vehicles for public transport through partnerships between the public and private sector.

To enhance the livability of Ipswich as a city, the Council has adopted the Safe Precinct initiative: leveraging its city network to create a safe precinct via video analytics, smart lighting and noise detection. The Council has also helped to develop a healthy living lab with wearables and other technologies designed to capture real-time data about the health and activity of residents in order to better meet their needs. Perhaps most importantly of all, the Ipswich City Council has created new platforms for delivering its services online, making it easier for citizens to learn about and utilize all the city has to offer.

Beginning in 2015, Ipswich commenced a major redevelopment of its city center, where digital technologies will be used to attract commercial and residential tenants and to improve public safety through video monitoring, license plate and facial recognition software. Green standards will make the city center one of the most sustainable in Australia. When it is completed in 2031, it will mark the emergence of one of the nation’s model cities.

In the News
Read the latest updates about Ipswich.

Population: 204,004

Website: www.ipswich.qld.gov.au

Smart21 2011 | 2012 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018

Top7 2015 | 2017 | 2018

Gold Coast (a 2008 Smart21) is a regional city, under a single Council, grouping beach towns along 60km of coastline. Once an agricultural economy, it became a tourist haven only to see visits fall following September 11, 2001. Since then, Gold Coast has executed against an ambitious development strategy. A Broadening Broadband project succeeded in extending ADSL service to 80% of the city while planning has begun to develop an open-access FTTP network. The Pacific Innovation Corridor program seeks to build globally competitive businesses throughout the city while the Gold Coast Innovation Center incubates technology start-ups. The Gold Coast Knowledge Precinct is being developed to create, attract and support knowledge-based businesses throughout a 200-hectare area surrounding Griffith University.

Population: 509,000

Website: www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au

Smart21 2009

Located on Australia's eastern seaboard, Coffs Harbour is a tapestry of mountains, national parks, sandy beaches, quaint villages and marine reserves. Its natural bounty and busy regional airport have made it a highly desirable tourist and retirement destination. They have also granted Coffs Harbour less desirable gifts: a population that skews older than the Australian average and an economy dominated by healthcare, social assistance and seasonal accommodation, food services and retailing. As a result, the city has a markedly smaller proportion of high-income households and higher proportion of low-income households than the Australian average.

Planning Strategy

In 2009, the Council established a 2030 Strategic Plan, based on yearlong community consultation, to create a more vibrant future for this city on the sea. More than a decade earlier Nineties, Council made the decision to invest in a fiber-optic network to connect all governmental facilities. This proved persuasive to the national government, which named Coffs Harbour as one of 19 second-wave deployment zones for the National Broadband Network. Service to the first 2,600 homes was switched on in February of 2013.

To prepare Coffs Harbour for a broadband future, the community launched a Digital Enterprise program to train local businesses and institutions in digital technologies. It launched pilot programs in telemedicine, with a special focus on at-home care of seniors with chronic health issues. An Innovation Centre opened to provide office space, mentoring and incubation of new businesses, and the city focused on building working partnerships with its university and technical schools to engage students and graduates in local opportunity. It also launched art and cultural festivals that had the dual effect of strengthening the tourist economy while enriching quality of life. These steps are laying an impressive foundation for an economy that attracts and retains creative people and innovative organizations who will build a stronger future.

Population: 70,000

Website: www.coffs.com.au

Smart21 2014