General News
1 October, 2025
TRC backs Hill to stay
THE state electorate of Hill should be retained, according to a submission by Tablelands Regional Council to the Queensland Redistribution Commission (QRC).
The commission has asked for feedback on suggestions to change boundaries of state electorates to ensure enrolment numbers are spread fairly between the state’s 93 electoral districts.
But the LNP’s suggestion to abolish Hill and split the Atherton Tablelands’ towns between Traeger and Mulgrave has drawn criticism from Member for Hill Shane Knuth and, now, the council which has written to the QRC to express its “clear preference” to retain the seat of Hill.
“If this is not possible, then our firmly held view is that the community’s interests are best served if the whole of the TRC local government area is placed within Mulgrave, not divided between Mulgrave and Traeger,” the submission signed by Mayor Rod Marti and CEO Nikola Stepanov states.
“This is not simply a matter of lines on a map, it is about the daily lives of the 27,600 people who call the Tablelands home.
“Atherton, our population centre, lies just 45 kilometres from Mulgrave’s electorate office in Gordonvale; while Mount Isa – the administrative base of Traeger – is more than 1,100 kilometres away.”
The submission notes that the Tablelands differs greatly from Traeger from a geographical perspective, “with little commonality between our environments”, and its economy was based on agriculture and tourism, rather than mining, “underscoring how little connection exists with Traeger’s economic profile”.
From a social and community perspective, Tablelands people were more connected to Cairns, according to the submission.
“Our people do not look west across that vast distance for their needs and connection. They look east, over the Gillies and Kuranda Ranges, to Cairns,” it states.
“That is where they take their children for specialist medical care, where they regularly access an airport for travel, where they send their young adults for university, where they trade their produce and welcome their visitors.
“The districts of Cairns and Mulgrave are not just our near neighbours, they are our community’s lifeline.
“Our social and community ties are just as strong. Almost 88% of our workforce live and work locally, and those who commute outward overwhelmingly travel to Cairns or Mareeba.
“The flow goes both ways: Cairns’ residents also travel up the ranges to work in many industries, from schools to hospitals and farms. Our young people pursue training and study at James Cook University and TAFE in Cairns, while families regularly rely on its hospitals for care that simply cannot be delivered locally.
“These connections are the daily, practical, and enduring rhythms of ordinary life in the Tablelands. Effective representation should reflect those rhythms and those strong, existing community interest alignments.”
The council also believes that towns on the Tablelands would lack the representation they need if they were added into the Traeger electorate.
“Traeger is already one of Queensland’s largest electorates by area. To expand it further by adding Atherton, Herberton, Ravenshoe, and Tolga would stretch the burden of a representative disproportionately, across communities with little shared identity, making fair representation increasingly difficult for all involved,” the submission states.
“Mulgrave, by contrast, already borders our region and shares our travel routes, planning frameworks, priorities, and everyday connections.
“It is the natural fit for the Tablelands if Hill must be abolished; Traeger is likely, of all our neighbouring councils, the one with which TRC shares the fewest common interests.
“For these reasons, TRC submits that Hill should be retained, and if not that our LGA be transferred in its entirety to Mulgrave.
“This would preserve our community of interest, ensure fair and practical representation, and keep the Tablelands aligned with the centres with which we already share a symbiotic connection.”
