'Dinkum Aussie' Fading

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30632, 24 December 1964, Page 11

'Dinkum Aussie' Fading

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) SYDNEY, Dec. 23. The sun-burned cattle drover in the Chips Rafferty tradition which seems to be the main impression of the “dinkum Aussie” that many people have, is rapidly fading from the scene if statistics are correct. As in New Zealand, where the drift to the towns and cities has been accelerating in recent years, a similar remorseless drift to the bright lights is being observed in Australia. According to a pamphlet,

I “Population Distribution and Growth,” just released, only 18 per cent of Australians now live in rural areas or in townships with a population of less than 1000.

Of the country's 11,250,000, more than half of them live in the country's four largest cities and more than 80 per cent in urban areas of more than 1000 people.

Over the most recent sevenyear period analysed, the rural population increased, but on a percentage basis fell by 2 per cent. In the same time the capital cities gained more than a million more inhabitants, with more than half of them settling either in Melbourne or Sydney.

Both Melbourne and Sydney have populations nearly equal to the whole of New Zealand, with Sydney reaching the 2.5 m mark. In the period reviewed, Melbourne had the more rapid growth of the two, growing at a rate of 3.5 per cent—almost 1 per cent more than Sydney. Melbourne's population is now about 2,100,000. The cities third and fourth in line in population are Brisbane with more than 650,000; and Adelaide, about 610,000.

The pamphlet showed that one of the most rapidly growing areas was the federal capital of Canberra. At the start of this year Canberra's population was 70,000.