North-Western NSW vs Mount Isa

North-Western NSW and Mount Isa are both expansive regional areas, but they offer very different levels of accessibility. North-Western NSW is far more walkable, with 69.5% of homes in a 15-minute-city walkshed compared to 37.4% in Mount Isa. This is clear in the basics: 56.9% of North-Western NSW homes are within a 10-minute walk of public transport, while Mount Isa has 0.0%. Residents in North-Western NSW also have much easier access to groceries (66.2%) and health services (58.3%), whereas those figures are 42.3% and 37.6% in Mount Isa.

Both areas have tracked similarly in their development since 2011, and they share a similar landscape with almost identical mean terrain slopes of around 3%. They also both have a significant First Nations population, though it is a little larger in Mount Isa. In that area, more people speak a First Nations language (7.8% compared to 3.0%) and have a higher rate of Year 12 completion (27.5% versus 22.7%).