 One proposal is that Queensland should be divided by the 22nd parallel with the boundary running just south of Sarina on the coast to the Northern Territory border between Boulia and Mount Isa

According to "The Courier-Mail" in 2010, the majority of North Queensland mayors were in favour of the separation from Queensland proper.Only two of the 100 delegates at the NQ Local Government Association meeting were against the proposal – the two being Mayor Val Schier (Cairns) and Mayor Ben Callcott (Charters Towers).In 2013, social demographer Bernard Salt said that Townsville would go from regional powerhouse to metropolitan city by 2026, and that there are fewer people living in the state of Tasmania than in North Queensland.