Proposch Street, Oakey, QLD 4401

I have lived here most of my life & for the majority of that time....I have loved living in Oakey.
I will agree with you that the Proposch/Shirley/Delray Sts do have a lot of department of houses, and even though I don't live in that area, very good friends of ours live in Hass St which is nearby, and they love living there.
Like anywhere else, there can be some problems, but from what you have scorchingly posted about Oakey is not how I, or the majority of others, have found it.....maybe it says something that your statment of 'people never leave the town' is because we love living here!! Maybe it could have been some of your doing, that you didn't have a good experience??!!
I know of many people who have shifted here from interstate, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, etc, etc at there own free will, who love the town & are retiring here.....and these are very respectable people who have been made to feel more than welcome in our town.
You have stated that Oakey is 'very close minded', but I in turn suggest that it is you who was/is close minded......a shame that you missed out on everything good that Oakey has to offer....but it was your loss, not ours.
Hope you have better luck in your current living situation.

The reason why people do not ever leave the town should be obvious. They like living here. The reason why unemployed do not go to Toowoomba is because Toowoomba is far worse. Before Covid came along, Oakey was a very Cosmopolitan town, mainly due to the influx of foreign workers flown in on work visas by the local abattoirs and the Singapore part of the army base. Lots of different nationalities and the town had a multicultural feel. There were negatives with Oakey being a mining town and the PFOS contamination was always in the news but mostly exaggerated, as PFOS is far more widespread in Australia than most people realize. The problem with the medical centres was due to the influx of people on work visas, many of whom would arrive sick and go straight to the medical centre. Of course they would spread their lurgies to the locals, who were waiting for hours in the cramped waiting room for hours to see the same doctors. I hope lessons can be learnt from Covid re social distancing, but sadly I think bad habits like these will return as soon as the Covid pandemic ends. As for the local hospital, it mainly functions as an aged person's home these days and most locals know to avoid it. The staff at the emergency department are often irritable and rude and able to offer little help in any case. Many wonder why the hospital remains open when it obviously cannot cope with the area it is supposed to service. It badly needs a major upgrade as all of the infrastructure is outdated. Oakey does have good things on offer and it may take a year or more to discover these things, as with any country town. There are in fact a lot of open minded and intelligent people living in Oakey. Sad that you did not stay long enough to find them.