Expats flocking to Melbourne suburbs

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Created on Wednesday, 01 August 2012 17:50

Written by Editorial staff

New figures published this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics have shown that over the past decade, the population of Melbourne has swelled by more than half a million people - many of them expats.

The Victorian capital showed the largest population growth of the nation's major cities, with numbers increasing by 647,200 between 2001 and 2011.

Melbourne's outer suburbs are proving particularly popular, with an increase of 32,300 people in South Morang alone. Caroline Springs, Tarneit and Point Cook also showed marked increases in population.

Expats from overseas are keen to make the move into outer suburban areas, where housing is often cheaper, according to Andrew Howe, a spokesman for the ABS.

He added that Australia's second-largest city remains a firm favourite for those looking to relocate from overseas - and this trend has been particularly evident in the past five years.

"What comes to the fore over the past five years is the level of overseas migration," he said. "A lot of them have chosen to move to Melbourne."

Unsurprisingly, Perth demonstrated the fastest growth of all Australian capital cities, due in no small part to the booming resources sector. Elsewhere in Western Australia, the Pilbara - where industry is driven almost exclusively by the resources sector - had the largest and fastest population increase in the state, rising by 59 per cent in the past decade.

Brisbane experienced the second-fastest growth of the Australian capital cities, with its total population increasing by 25 per cent in the ten-year period. In the new-build south Brisbane suburb of Springfield Lakes alone, the population skyrocketed from zero people in 2001 to 10,600 people in 2011.

Sydney's north-west growth corridor also demonstrated some significant movement, with the suburbs of Kellyville, Kellyville Ridge and Parklea showing the largest increase. Sydney accounted for three-quarters of the total population growth for the state of New South Wales.

Last month, immigration minister Chris Bowen revealed that for the first time, India has become the largest source of permanent migrants to Australia.

During the 2011-12 permanent migration program, Indian applicants made up 15.7 per cent of the total places on the scheme, followed by China and the United Kingdom. In total, seven of the top ten most-represented nations last year were Asian countries.

Skilled migration, he added, accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation's total migration program, with 125,755 places awarded last year.