Caboolture and the northern corridor: a builder's guide to the industrial land

By Brenscot Builders | Last reviewed September 2026

Caboolture is the northern end of the Moreton Bay industrial corridor, and it is the part where the planning position is least uniform. Within about fifteen kilometres you have an established industrial area with no state-level protection, a smaller precinct at Elimbah that has it, a general aviation airfield ringed by industrial land with no airport overlay over it, a 2,880-hectare state-declared growth area where the council no longer assesses applications, and a locality that is marketed as the next frontier but has no industrial zoning at all.

This guide separates those out, because the differences decide whether a site is buildable now, buildable later, or not buildable.

The short answer

The industrial land you can build on today sits in the Caboolture, Caboolture South and Morayfield localities, and at Elimbah. Caboolture West is now the Waraba Priority Development Area — its employment land is planned but largely still an investigation area, and applications go to Economic Development Queensland, not the council. Wamuran has no industrial-zoned land of any kind and sits outside the Urban Footprint.

The most useful distinction for anyone holding or buying: Elimbah's eastern industrial land and the Morayfield/Burpengary area carry state-level protection as Major Enterprise and Industrial Areas under ShapingSEQ 2023. The established Caboolture industrial area does not.

The instrument you are working to

The current scheme is the MBRC Planning Scheme 2016, version 8. Council adopted Local Government Infrastructure Plan Amendment No. 2 at its General Meeting on 9 September 2026 and it commenced on 11 September 2026, creating version 8.

That matters more than it sounds. Anything written about Moreton Bay industrial land before mid-September 2026 refers to version 7.1 or earlier, and a good deal of published material — including some council pages — lags the current version. Check the version before you rely on any advice, including this article.

Two further points on the instrument:

A new scheme is coming, slowly. Council resolved in January 2026 to replace the MBRC Planning Scheme 2016, which had reached its ten-year mark. As at the end of September 2026 there is no draft and no published timetable. For practical purposes the 2016 scheme governs for the next few years.

Amendments are in progress that touch industrial land. Major Amendment No. 4 (Morayfield South Emerging Community Area, plus city-wide designated bushfire prone areas), Major Amendment No. 5 (the permanent response to the Narangba Innovation Precinct temporary instrument) and a new planning scheme policy for Air Quality Impact Assessment are all in the pipeline. None had commenced at the time of writing.

The established Caboolture industrial area

Industrial-zoned land around Caboolture sits in three localities — Caboolture, Caboolture South and Morayfield — and falls within the Industry zone across three precincts: General industry, Light industry and Mixed industry and business. The precinct applies lot by lot, so two sites on the same street can sit in different precincts with different use tables.

Caboolture holds most of it, in two main bodies: one west of the North Coast rail line north of the town centre, and a larger one east of the town centre around the aerodrome. There are smaller pockets east of the Bruce Highway and to the north. Caboolture South has a modest Light industry pocket. Morayfield's industrial land is predominantly Mixed industry and business, on the eastern side.

Access is the area's strength. The Bruce Highway through Caboolture was widened from four to six lanes between Caboolture–Bribie Island Road and Steve Irwin Way, with major construction completed in April 2024. The interchanges in that section are Caboolture–Bribie Island Road, D'Aguilar Highway, Pumicestone Road and Steve Irwin Way. The D'Aguilar Highway runs west from Caboolture, and the North Coast rail line runs through the middle of it. Further Bruce Highway upgrade work is programmed south of Caboolture.

The gap in its protection. ShapingSEQ 2023 designates Major Enterprise and Industrial Areas across South East Queensland. That mapping is regulatory rather than aspirational — it operates under the Planning Regulation 2017 to shield industrial land within designated zones from specified competing urban development. In this corridor the designated areas are Elimbah East, Morayfield/Burpengary and Narangba. There is no Caboolture designation. The established Caboolture industrial area — the largest body of industrial land in the district — sits in the gap between the Elimbah East and Morayfield/Burpengary areas with no MEIA over it.

In practice that means Caboolture's industrial land relies on the local scheme alone to hold its position against residential and other urban encroachment, where Elimbah's and Morayfield's have a state layer as well. It is not a reason to avoid Caboolture. It is a reason to look carefully at what adjoins a site and what the neighbouring zoning permits, because the interface risk is not backstopped. See industry next to housing.

Caboolture Aerodrome and its surrounds

The airfield itself is in the Community facilities zone, Airfield precinct. The land around it, to the west and north, is ordinary Industry zone — General industry for the most part, with some Light industry. There is no aviation-specific or airport employment precinct in the scheme, so a building near the aerodrome is assessed as industrial development, not as airport development.

There is no airport overlay in the planning scheme. The scheme's overlays cover acid sulfate soils, bushfire, coastal hazard, environmental areas, extractive resources, flood, infrastructure buffers, landslide, overland flow, riparian and wetland setbacks, road hierarchy, scenic amenity, stormwater catchments and transport noise corridors, among others. There is no obstacle limitation surface overlay, no aircraft noise overlay and no wildlife hazard overlay.

That is genuinely useful to know, and it is also where people get careless. The absence of a scheme overlay does not mean there is no height or obstacle constraint near an operating aerodrome. CASA and Airservices Australia requirements operate independently of the planning scheme, the aero club's own operations manual governs the field, and the State Planning Policy's strategic airports and aviation facilities state interest is mapped by the Queensland Government rather than by the council. If you are proposing anything tall — a high-bay warehouse, a stack, a crane during construction — have that checked against the State Planning Policy mapping and with CASA before you commit to a height. We could not confirm from a primary source whether Caboolture Aerodrome is a strategic airport under the State Planning Policy, and that is a question worth resolving rather than assuming.

Two other honest gaps. We could not verify the aerodrome's ownership and tenure from a council or Queensland Government source — the commonly repeated position is that the land is state-owned with the council as custodian and the aero club as lessee, but we could not confirm it, so we are not asserting it. And we could not find any published master plan, structure plan or expansion strategy for the aerodrome or its surrounds. If one exists it is not public.

Elimbah

Elimbah has industrial-zoned land in two precincts: General industry, on the eastern side of the Bruce Highway and North Coast rail corridor, and Light industry in the township area. Both sit inside the Urban Footprint under ShapingSEQ 2023.

The eastern industrial land is inside the Elimbah East Major Enterprise and Industrial Area, which is the state-level protection the Caboolture area lacks. It is a narrow north–south strip on the eastern side of the corridor, running from Elimbah down into northern Caboolture. Because it is narrow and runs along the corridor, whether a particular lot is inside it is a mapping question, not something to judge by suburb — check the specific land.

Elimbah is also the northern terminus of the protected Moreton Motorway corridor (formerly the Bruce Highway Western Alternative). More than 30 km of alignment between Elimbah and Narangba is identified and protected, and the protected corridor can be viewed in the Queensland Government's Development Assessment Mapping System. The southern section from Narangba to Bald Hills is still in planning. The project has planning funding only and no published construction timeline, so treat it as a corridor constraint and a long-term access benefit, not as imminent infrastructure.

Constraints to price in. Both Elimbah industrial pockets return a flood overlay under the council's flood hazard mapping — flood planning area on one and balance flood planning area on the other. That is a polygon-level result, not a flood level, so obtain a council flood search for any actual site before you assume anything about levels or fill. Elimbah also sits within the region-wide South East Queensland koala protection area, which covers most of the region and tells you little on its own; whether a site carries mapped koala habitat area — the mapping that actually bites under the Planning Regulation — has to be checked lot by lot and we could not test it remotely. Both go on the due diligence list. See buying industrial land: the due diligence checklist and stormwater management.

Caboolture West — now the Waraba Priority Development Area

This is the part where the most out-of-date information circulates, because the governing framework changed entirely.

Caboolture West is now the Waraba Priority Development Area, declared by regulation on 2 August 2024 under the Economic Development Act 2012. It covers approximately 2,880 hectares, bounded by the existing and emerging suburban areas of Bellmere, Lilywood and Wagtail Grove to the east, the D'Aguilar Highway to the north, Caboolture River Road to the south, and the low hills along Old North Road to the west.

Three consequences that matter to anyone looking at land there.

The council is not the assessment manager. Economic Development Queensland is taking responsibility for assessing development applications in the PDA. If you are working from an assumption that a Caboolture West application goes to the City of Moreton Bay, that assumption is wrong. Some council material has not caught up. Confirm the current position with EDQ before lodging anything.

The permanent instrument is not finalised. Development in the PDA is currently regulated by the Waraba PDA Interim Land Use Plan, a temporary instrument that applies until the PDA Development Scheme is finalised. The Development Scheme remains a proposal. That means the detailed land use rules for the industrial land are still being settled.

The employment land is planned, not yet developable. The PDA is envisaged to develop over about 40 years into a community of roughly 65,000 people in about 25,000 homes, providing approximately 17,000 jobs across employment and activity centre locations. An industrial area is intended in the northern part of the PDA, with access to the D'Aguilar Highway and the future Moreton Motorway, aimed at low-to-medium impact industry, research facilities, service industries and small-scale offices, with a neighbourhood hub serving the workforce. But that land largely sits in an investigation area pending further planning.

The honest summary for a builder or an owner-occupier: Waraba is not where you solve a requirement in the next couple of years. It is a land position and a long-term play, it will be governed by an instrument that does not exist yet, and the assessment path is unfamiliar to most people who have only dealt with council. If you are looking at land there, get advice from a planner who has worked inside a PDA.

Wamuran

Wamuran is not industrial land, and it is worth being blunt about it because it is sometimes presented as though it were.

The Rural zone, Agriculture precinct applies across the Wamuran area. There is no Industry zone precinct of any kind in the locality — not General industry, not Light industry, not even the Township industry precinct that applies in some small settlements. Wamuran sits in the Regional Landscape and Rural Production Area under ShapingSEQ 2023, which is to say outside the Urban Footprint, the category the regional plan reserves for urban development.

The direction of travel is further into agriculture, not out of it. The Wamuran Irrigation Scheme delivers Class A recycled water from the Caboolture South Sewage Treatment Plant to Wamuran farms, supporting horticulture — berries, pineapples, avocados and turf — with a climate-independent water supply, while reducing nutrient discharge to the Caboolture River. That is substantial public investment made specifically to secure high-value agriculture on that land.

So anyone offering Wamuran land on an industrial development premise is offering you a rezoning argument that runs against both the local scheme and the regional plan, in a category the state protects deliberately. That is not an impossible argument in every case, but it is a multi-year planning exercise with a real prospect of failure, and it should be priced and described as such rather than as a site.

What to check first on a Caboolture-area site

In this order:

  1. The zone and precinct for the specific lot, against the current version of the scheme — version 8 at the time of writing.
  2. Whether it is inside a Major Enterprise and Industrial Area. Elimbah East and Morayfield/Burpengary are; Caboolture is not. It changes how protected the site's industrial future is.
  3. Whether it is inside the Waraba PDA. If it is, the planning scheme is not the instrument and the council is not the assessment manager.
  4. Flooding, with a council flood search rather than the overlay polygon.
  5. Height and obstacle constraints if the site is near the aerodrome, via the State Planning Policy mapping and CASA, not the scheme overlays.
  6. Koala habitat area mapping for the specific lot.
  7. The Moreton Motorway corridor, in the Development Assessment Mapping System, if the site is anywhere between Elimbah and Narangba.
  8. Services capacity, particularly power. See power supply and Energex connection.
  9. Infrastructure charges, and whether an existing use gives a demand credit. See infrastructure charges compared.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the industrial land at Caboolture?

In the Caboolture, Caboolture South and Morayfield localities, within the Industry zone across the General industry, Light industry and Mixed industry and business precincts. The two largest bodies in Caboolture are west of the North Coast rail line north of the town centre, and around the aerodrome.

Can I build a warehouse at Caboolture West?

Not straightforwardly, and not soon. Caboolture West is the Waraba Priority Development Area. Industrial land is planned in the northern part of the PDA but largely remains an investigation area, the permanent Development Scheme is still a proposal, and Economic Development Queensland rather than the council is taking responsibility for assessing applications.

Is there industrial land at Elimbah?

Yes — General industry on the eastern side of the highway and rail corridor, and Light industry in the township area. The eastern land sits inside the Elimbah East Major Enterprise and Industrial Area, and both pockets carry flood overlay mapping.

Is Wamuran industrial land?

No. Wamuran is Rural zone, Agriculture precinct, with no industrial zoning anywhere in the locality, and it sits in the Regional Landscape and Rural Production Area outside the Urban Footprint.

Does the aerodrome restrict building heights nearby?

Not through the planning scheme, which has no obstacle limitation surface, aircraft noise or wildlife hazard overlay. But CASA and Airservices Australia requirements and the State Planning Policy's aviation state interest operate independently of the scheme, so height should be checked against those for any site near the airfield.

Which planning scheme version applies?

MBRC Planning Scheme 2016 version 8, which commenced on 11 September 2026. Council has resolved to prepare an entirely new City of Moreton Bay scheme, but as at late September 2026 there was no draft and no published timetable.

Is Caboolture protected industrial land?

Not at state level. The established Caboolture industrial area is not within a Major Enterprise and Industrial Area under ShapingSEQ 2023, unlike Elimbah East, Morayfield/Burpengary and Narangba. It relies on the local planning scheme to hold its position.

Sources

General information only

This article is general information, current as at 29 September 2026. It is not planning, legal or valuation advice. Planning instruments in this corridor are changing quickly — the scheme reached version 8 in September 2026, a new scheme has been resolved, two major amendments are in progress, and the Waraba PDA Development Scheme is not final. Some published council and state pages lag the current position. Confirm the zone, precinct, overlays and assessment manager for a specific site with the City of Moreton Bay, Economic Development Queensland where relevant, and a town planner before relying on any of it.

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