Moorabool region a treechange hotspot

CHRISTOPHER O’LEARY

Nine years ago, Steven Venditti-Taylor sought a life away from the “constant congestion” along Melbourne’s arterial roads.

The now-Moorabool Shire mayor’s regional migration is reflective of recent figures that placed the shire as one of the top five areas drawing people away from cities.

Moorabool was rated fourth in the Regional Australia Institute’s (RAI) top five local government areas for share of total net internal migration. The figure was recorded as part of the institute’s Regional Movers Index for March.

The shire had a share of 3.5 per cent, with its migration coming from capital cities. Only Sunshine Coast (8.8 per cent) and Fraser Coast (3.9 per cent) in Queensland, and Greater Geelong (5.3 per cent) had greater shares, with New South Wales’ Lake Macquarie (3.4 per cent) in fifth.

Cr Venditti-Taylor said the growth of migration meant the Moorabool region was a place everyone wanted to come and live.

“People want to have more of that semi-rural life,” he said. “They want to not be so crammed in. They don’t want to be hit by traffic.

“It’s a situation where I used to live with my wife in Thomastown, which was 45 minutes to the city. Come out to Bacchus Marsh, you’re basically in the city in 45 minutes by train.”

He said having more space was what appealed to him.

“We wanted to not be crammed in and, when you look at it, you go down the shops and you know a lot of people every time you go down there. So it’s got that more appealing feel to it,” Cr Venditti-Taylor said.

The Regional Movers Index showed capital city residents moving to Australia’s regions outnumbered those heading in the opposite direction by 29.7 per cent.

“This is the highest level of capital-to-regional movement the RMI has ever recorded,” RAI chief executive officer Liz Ritchie said. “Australians are continuing to choose regional life in greater numbers, even as economic conditions shift.

“Across COVID, inflation, housing pressures and tight labour markets, the trend has been remarkably consistent – people are leaving capital cities for regions, and they’re doing so at increasing rates.”