I was told by a school admin lady that in Qld, public schools don't have waiting lists. You just have to wait until they open for enrolments for the year you need. Dunno if that is true or not for all public schools in Qld, but it is the case up here.
It's true for our school. They open enrolments for prep in term 3 of the year before, so they have just opened up prep enrolments for next year. When DS turned 4 I rang about enrolling him and was told to wait until they started enrolments in August/September. They don't do waiting lists. Public schools are not allowed to refuse enrolment, but if there is a catchment in place they are pretty strict about it - usually the first question asked is where you live. Our school doesn't have a catchment so it wasn't a problem.

If DD attending a certain school is very important to you and you don't like the area where you live, then I would seriously consider moving. I know easier said than done though! We would like to move to Narangba but can't afford it. If we bought a house there our mortgage would almost double. But we do like where we live now and the school is good.