Maitland has been deemed among the top 10 most popular destinations for regional-to-regional movers.
It comes as 13 LGAs around the country recorded a jump in net internal migration levels of more than 100% through 2022.
That’s according to the December quarter Regional Movers Index, coordinated by the Commonwealth Bank and Regional Australia Institute (RAI), with Queensland and Victoria boasting the largest share.
This included the top five of Port Pirie (South Australia), Gladstone (Queensland), Murray Bridge (South Australia), Glen Innes (New South Wales) and York (Western Australia), which all registered a jump of more than 200% in 2022.
Net internal migration is a key driver of change in a region’s total population.
It calculates the number of people from outside of the region (but still within Australia) moving in, less the number of local people leaving that region for another (within Australia).
The regional LGAs experiencing the largest net internal migration inflows in 2022 had a clear coastal Queensland theme, with the Sunshine Coast topping the list.
Surprisingly, Newcastle and Wollongong did not make their marks.
While these major centres close to Sydney experience significant population inflows from capitals, they also experience considerable outflows (mainly to other regions, but also back to capitals), which is now captured in the new methodology.
In 2022, the outflows from Newcastle and Wollongong to other regions saw them out of the running for the top five LGAs.
However, the Local Government Areas gaining the most people from capitals were those centres along the east coast.
In 2022, the Gold Coast ranked first (11.6%), followed by the Sunshine Coast, Greater Geelong and Lake Macquarie to account for a respective 10.8%, 4.3% and 3.5% of net capital to region migration.
For those already living in regional Australia and making a regional move, Queensland held the most appeal again.
Out of the top five LGAs attracting the greatest level of net regional migration inflows, four were located north of the border.
Bundaberg, Fraser Coast, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast were top of the list, each accounting for about 4% to 6%.
The outsider was historic Maitland, which secured fifth spot with a 4.3% share of total net region-to-region migration.
RAI CEO Liz Ritchie admitted the impact of capital city movers to the regions was now having a flow-on effect to other regional places, many of which had witnessed limited population growth.
“The areas experiencing significant net migration increases would certainly be feeling the impact on house prices and rents, local services and infrastructure,” she said.
“For that reason, policy makers, industry and regional leaders need to heed these results, to ensure adequate planning and resourcing is put in place to accommodate demand both now and in coming decades.
“In the early days of COVID, the high growth places were generally locations such as the Surf Coast, Byron Bay and Noosa.
“But, the latest dataset shows us that regional people are leaving these areas for other inland centres or coastal towns – with a growing number opting to go even further away from Sydney and Melbourne.
“The regional housing squeeze is just one example of what can happen when we haven’t prepared for growth.
“The low growth ‘business as usual’ trends before 2020 has led to underinvestment in some regional areas.”
The Regional Movers Index is a partnership between Commonwealth Bank and the RAI, which analyses the quarterly and annual trends in people moving to and from Australia’s regional areas.
Commonwealth Bank executive general manager for regional and agribusiness banking Paul Fowler said there was a slight drop of just 0.8% in the number of people moving from cities to regional towns in the December quarter.
“This confirms that regional hubs are continuing to attract thousands of metro movers,” he stated.
“Many are attracted by the opportunities that our thriving regional economies present.
“While it’s been a difficult year for many businesses who have faced significant challenges, including labour shortages and inflationary pressures, industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture are growing strongly and regional businesses are investing more to sustain increasing demand for their products and services.
“Key centres, such as Geelong in Victoria, Newcastle and Wollongong in NSW, and Bundaberg and Townsville in Queensland offer a wonderful mixture of attractive lifestyle benefits and significant business opportunities.”
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