Record population growth strains transport system
John Masanauskas
April 24, 2009 12:00am
MELBOURNE had record population growth last year, with the extra 74,600 people putting further strain on roads and public transport.
The city's addition in 2007-08, easily outstripped Sydney's growth of 55,000.
Leading the surge were suburbs such as Hoppers Crossing, Werribee, Cranbourne, Narre Warren and Melton.
The City of Wyndham, which includes Werribee, increased by 8900 -- the biggest growth of any municipality in the nation, according to an ABS report released yesterday.
Other high-growth council areas were Casey on the city's southeast fringe, Melton in the west and Whittlesea to the north.
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Overall, Melbourne's population grew by 2 per cent to 3.9 million -- the largest growth of any capital city, according to Regional Population Growth Australia 2007-08.
Monash University demographer Dr Bob Birrell said the city's startling growth reflected record high migration. "It shows that the (growth) gap between Melbourne and Sydney has opened up even further than was the case in the last few years," he said.
The rapid population surge in outer suburbs was consistent with State Government policy to open up new land, especially in the west and north.
"This extraordinary expansion will significantly add to transport problems with rail and road systems we're already experiencing," he said.
"The number of people in these areas is way above the number of jobs there, so people are travelling across the city for work."
Victoria's population increased by more than 92,000 to 5.31 million as of June last year.
Some regional areas, including the Rural City of Benalla and the shires of Yarriamback, Hindmarsh and Northern Grampians, recorded slight decreases.
Original article
1 comment:
Now that we are stealing environmental flows of water from the already stress Thomson river, it is clear that our State government of Victoria fears we may run out of water before the Wonthaggi desalination plant is operable, in 2011! Our government policies are being forged by business groups who want a continual supply of labour, to force wages lower, and customers.
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