It's not too big, it's not too small, it's just right.
That's how Toowoomba businessman Isaac Moody describes the regional city west of Brisbane.
"It's in the Goldilocks zone," Mr Moody told AAP.
"It feels like a big country town, but you're only one-and-a-half hours out of Brisbane so you get the best of both worlds."
Home to 173,000 people, Toowoomba is leading the population shift as Australians leave the cities in favour of the regions at record levels.
The Regional Movers Index, which tracks population movement from the cities, has hit an all-time high, rising 20.1 per cent in the first three months of 2026.
City residents moving to the regions outnumbered migration in the opposite direction by almost 30 per cent in the March quarter, according to index data released on Tuesday.
