Queensland is spending up on boosting business in the bush with an $80 million package to increase investment in the regions.
The funding includes $50 million towards attracting business and $30 million for community projects.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the cash splash in Rockhampton at the Courier Mail Bush Summit, which brings leaders of government and industry together to discuss issues facing areas beyond the state's southeast.
The $50 million Backing Business in the Bush Fund aims to assist decentralisation and adaptation as Queensland competes for export markets.
"This is about helping business expand and relocate to the region's supporting more good secure jobs and more skilled opportunities in traditional industries," Ms Palaszczuk told the gathering on Friday.
The $30 million Backing Bush Communities Fund includes $10 million for community projects.
Councils and organisations outside the southeast will be able to apply for $50,000 grants to go towards parks and festivals and improving local infrastructure.
The fund also includes $8 million for workforce training in partnership with the Queensland Farmers Federation and AgForce, with a focus on essential and emerging skills.
Queensland was proudly Australia's most decentralised state and its strength was in the regions, the premier said.
"Industries like mining and agriculture never skipped a beat during the pandemic.
"They helped make the Queensland economy the best in the nation."
Ms Palaszczuk pointed to the more than 88,000 regional jobs created since Labor was elected in 2015, as well as her government's $89 billion infrastructure spree, more than two-thirds of which was being spent in the regions.
She was also asked about expanding incentives to attract key workers to regional areas and acknowledged more needed to be done.
She said the issue was a national one: "Everyone is poaching everybody else's stuff and it's who's got the best incentives to get people."
The premier also used the event to announce that laws will be tabled next week to protect a small town under threat of demolition when a nearby mine closes.
Residents in Glenden, southwest of Mackay, have waged a campaign to save the town.
It was built in the early 1980s for workers at the Newlands coalmine and hundreds of homes face the axe as part of the site's rehabilitation when owner Glencore winds the operation up in coming years.
"The end of the life of one mine does not mean the end of the life of others," Ms Palaszczuk told the summit.
"And as far as the government is concerned, it will not mean the end of the life of Glenden."
Mining magnate Gina Reinhart used her keynote speech to again criticise the costs of net zero to industry and agriculture.
Australia's richest person also pushed for less red tape, money made in the bush being reinvested in the bush and special economic zones in the regions.