Did you know that, despite being neighbouring suburbs, Cannon Hill and Murarrie are separated by one of the starkest health divides in Brisbane? Women living in Murarrie are dying, on average, 15 years younger than women in Cannon Hill, according to new University of Queensland research.
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What the Research Found
The UQ study, led by health geographer and Associate Professor Jonathan Olsen from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Social Science Research, used train station catchment areas as geographic markers to collect and compare health data across Brisbane. It is an approach that has previously been applied in Glasgow, London and New York, and the results for our corner of the city are confronting.
On the Cleveland line, the Murarrie and Cannon Hill comparison produced one of the starkest disparities in the study for women. But the finding is not isolated. On the Redcliffe Peninsula line, men in Zillmere had a median age of death of 72, a full decade below the median for men in nearby Geebung. South of the CBD, men in the Inala Richlands area were found to have a life expectancy of just 70 years, eleven years less than men in Darra Sumner. For women in those same areas, the gap was 12 years.
It’s Not Just About Money
The instinct might be to chalk this up to income, to assume that Cannon Hill is simply wealthier. But the census data complicates that narrative. Murarrie actually records a higher median household income than Cannon Hill. So what is driving the gap?
According to Professor Olsen, the causes are layered. Access to income matters, but so do housing stability, education, employment, local services and green spaces. “There’s also the types of services that you have in the local place and access to parks and green spaces,” he told the Brisbane Times.
For Murarrie specifically, census data points to higher rates of divorce, unpaid care work and female single parent households compared to Cannon Hill. These pressures, disproportionately carried by women, are identified in the research as contributors to worse health outcomes. Murarrie’s history as a former rural outpost that evolved into a largely industrial area also matters. Access to parks, bike paths and local services is among the factors Professor Olsen identifies as shaping health outcomes in areas like Murarrie.
What It Means for the Community
Professor Olsen is deliberate about how the research should be used. The goal is not to brand any suburb as Brisbane’s unhealthiest. It is to hand planners and governments a sharper tool.
Prof Olsen was clear that the research is not intended to label any suburb as Brisbane’s least healthy. Its purpose, he said, is to make the variation in health outcomes visible, and to give policymakers the evidence they need to ask where intervention is needed and what form it should take.
That could mean upgrading a park, extending a bike path, or directing additional health services to areas where the data shows people are struggling. The research is intended to guide where those investments should go.
A Question Worth Asking
For those of us who live in Morningside, Cannon Hill, Murarrie and the surrounding suburbs, this research lands close to home. We share the same roads, the same school catchments, the same weekend farmers markets. Yet the data tells us that where you live within this small pocket of Brisbane can quietly shape how long and how well you live.
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The research has been done. The gap has been mapped. The question now is whether local officials, state health planners and community advocates will act on it and how soon.
Published 4-March-2026
