From Brighton to Burleigh: The Queensland suburbs most popular with Victorians
October 3, 2023Save articles for later
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Thousands traded life in Melbourne for the warmth of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast during the five years to 2021 as an exodus from southern states boosts local populations across south-east Queensland.
Prahran, Brighton and Docklands were among the suburbs with the most departures to the Gold Coast from Melbourne between 2016 and 2021. Analysis of census figures by The Age found that more than 12,000 people moved from Victoria to the Gold Coast in that period.
Thousands have traded life in Melbourne for the warmth of the Gold Coast.Credit: Dan Peled
KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said the warm climate coupled with relatively affordable housing in the region has underpinned population flows into south-east Queensland.
“That housing affordability draw is definitely part of it,” he said. “You can cash in your property in Brighton or Bondi and get something cheaper, and or, larger in Burleigh Heads or Noosa.”
Social researcher, Mark McCrindle, said greater acceptance of flexible employment arrangements since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially work from home, has been another driver of interstate migration.
“A move to Queensland while keeping a southern city job is now much more viable,” he said.
In the Gold Coast neighbourhood of Coolangatta, which borders NSW, 18.6 per cent of the population located in the area moved from the two populous southern states between 2016 and 2021 – the highest share of any Queensland neighbourhood.
Other beachside Gold Coast suburbs to attract a large share of new residents from the southern states during that period include Mermaid Beach-Broadbeach (11.4 per cent), Currumbin-Tugun (10.4 per cent), Surfers Paradise (9.6 per cent) and Burleigh Heads (8.3 per cent).
Nearly 50,000 people shifted to the Gold Coast from NSW and Victoria between 2016 and 2021. Sea changers from these southern states now make up about 7 per cent of the Gold Coast’s population – or about one in every 14 people.
It was a similar story for the Sunshine Coast, where around 6 per cent of the current population moved there from NSW and Victoria during the five years to 2021.
The biggest influx was to Peregian Springs (14.4 per cent), Noosa Heads (13 per cent) and Noosaville (11 per cent).
Just over 10,000 people shifted to the Sunshine Coast from Victoria between 2016 and 2021.
Residents from the Mornington Peninsula were among the most enthusiastic about heading to the Sunshine Coast, with 107 moving there from Mount Martha, 107 from Rosebud-McCrae, 105 from Mount Eliza and 96 from Point Nepean.
But it was coastal Torquay that recorded the biggest loss of residents to Queensland’s beaches of anywhere in Victoria, with 124 people moving to the Sunshine Coast and 108 to the Gold Coast over the five-year period between censuses.
The influx of population from NSW and Victoria has contributed to robust population growth in south-east Queensland.
The Sunshine Coast’s population jumped by 15.1 per cent between 2016 and 2021 – way above the national growth rate of 8.6 per cent during that period. The Gold Coast grew by 12.4 per cent between 2016 and 2021 while Greater Brisbane’s population rose by 11.2 per cent in the period.
Last year, Queensland had a net inflow of 34,545 people due to interstate migration while Victoria had a net outflow to other states of 9955. Queensland’s population grew by 2.2 per cent last year, well above the national growth rate of 1.9 per cent.
Parts of inner Brisbane have also attracted a good share of the new residents from NSW and Victoria during the past five years, especially Bulimba (7.9 per cent), Enoggera (6.9 per cent) and Hawthorne (6.6 per cent). Almost 16,000 people moved from Victoria to Brisbane between 2016 and 2021, census figures show.
Rawnsley said Brisbane offered housing at a “cheaper price point” than the southern capitals which had helped attract young, well-educated workers to the city, especially those employed in the professional services sector.
“If you put Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne together, there’s a demographic that wants a coastal lifestyle, there’s a demographic that wants an inner-city lifestyle and there’s a group that wants a new house on a bigger block – on affordability Brisbane wins out on all those fronts,” he said.
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