Updating the aspirations for Lorne

THE Committee for Lorne (CfL) is maintaining its desire to increase the town’s permanent population, but the knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic may have gone some way to resolving the issue.

The committee has been developing its vision for how it sees Lorne in the future, releasing the first “Achieving Lorne’s Aspirations” document in 2017 and putting out an updated version last month.

The document sets out six strategies:

• Defining and solving issues that put the natural environment at risk
• Leading through collaboration
• Building a vibrant and sustainable local economy
• Creating a community for everyone,
• Encouraging more visitors who stay longer, and
• Accommodating Lorne’s future.

The last of these has the goal of a significantly larger permanent population in Lorne and a more normal demographic spread across all age groups, and includes supporting the existing and ongoing research into how to appropriately accommodate 500 more permanent residents, most of whom are to be of working age and under.

Lorne’s permanent population, according to the 2016 census, is only 1,026, but the town’s population can swell to nearly 15,000 (almost all in holiday houses) during summer.

CfL chair Ian Stewart said Lorne’s population had been “on the radar” as an issue for several years, but the town had seen a marked increase in the number of people living there – albeit as a result of restrictions on movement and people having to work from home – over the past five months.

“One of the things we’ve seen is that COVID, potentially, has looked to solve a lot of our problems, subject to that current trend continuing.

“What we’ve found through COVID is a lot of our non-permanent resident property owners have called Lorne home.”

He said these people may have normally lived in Melbourne, but the dream of working from home in Lorne had become “a real possibility” for them.

Mr Stewart said CfL was gathering data from Origin Energy and Powercor about consumption rates in the town over the past six months compared to the previous three years to get a more accurate measure of the population during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’d suggest if you spoke with a local supermarket, a local chemist and a local gift shop, all would report that their winter trade was as good as any in recent years.”