Development in the Redlands Region

This is the latest satellite imagery of the northern Redland Bay region, inclusive of Mt Cotton, which displays the cramped new housing encroaching on conserved land.

We will take a jump back to 1955, when the region had a very different primary land use...

The Redland Bay region was a renowned area of farming with . The red volcanic soil is among the richest in Australia for produce, and was farmed on since the 1860's. This soil is classified as a Krasnozem. Sugar cane, cotton and rice were tried, but later replaced by banana, pineapple and citrus plantations. The region remained agricultural for majority of the 20th century, before land-use changes took place to accommodate for the growing population of south-east Queensland.

Moving forward 15 years, you can see that some forest has been cleared and farmland has expanded.

After another decade, you can see more roads and a few residential patches on the northern coast. It still remains mostly agricultural.

Nearing the end of the century, farms can be seen as diminishing and being replaced by housing. In the north-eastern corner of the map, the land-use by the shore is now dominated by residential living. This was likely to be caused by the growing interest in retirement by the sea.

Moving into satellite imagery, a wider view of the region can be seen. Development has sprung up in Mt Cotton, and more of the coast is overcome by housing estates, with some plantations and farmland intact more inland. The land use could now be considered residentially dominant.

A miniscule amount of farming land can now be seen, and the housing estates become more and more dense. They are encroaching on Bayview Conservation Park, and patches of land can be seen as cleared and preparing for development.

The rapid development of entire new suburbs over the two decades of the 21st century completely flipped the land use of the region.