Many regional Australian towns are facing population declines

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia is a growing country. But while our population has jumped by eight million since the turn of the century, some regional towns are going backwards. Over the last 25 years, the proportion of Australians living outside major cities has dropped by three per cent. Many regional towns are facing major population declines.

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00:00Brim's history is carved into the town's streets. The schools gone, the footy club

00:14too, the lifeblood of a town reduced to etchings in brick.

00:19When farms were a lot smaller, a lot more families in the area in those days, sadly

00:29in the past 50 years, you know, the opposite has happened. Farmers have got bigger with

00:34less families.

00:37Brim is located in the heart of Yarriambiak, a region in Victoria's rural north-west that

00:43through its history had 16 football clubs. Now there's just four.

00:48Eagles!

00:49We're all battling for numbers. You can't deny that numbers are going, they're a downward trend.

00:58It's a symptom of a dwindling population.

01:01You can see in the surrounding areas of the smaller towns that once they lose their football

01:06netball club, they lose their population and it's sad to see.

01:12Back in 2001, Yarriambiak had a population a bit over 8,000 people. Today that number's

01:17down to 6,000. It's a quarter of its population gone in the past two decades. That's what gives

01:23this place the title of Victoria's fastest shrinking region.

01:30It's a common problem in Victoria's north-west. West Wimmera has lost 20% of its population.

01:38Baloke, 17.5%. Mildura surrounds, 16.7%. Yarriambiak's mayor knows the region needs to adapt to hang on.

01:50It's around supplying what the families and younger people need now that are still living

01:56in our communities and those that we want to attract in as well.

01:59That includes bringing people to the region with tourism efforts, attractive jobs and remarkable

02:11community spirit. I have been here five days as of today. The locals have been very welcoming

02:18to me. There are green shoots with the recently opened Rapanyip Cafe becoming a cornerstone

02:26of the small community. There hasn't been a coffee shop in town for a long time. So it's forged a lot of new

02:34connections in town and really kind of brought the community together for a central meeting place.

02:44Yarriambiak might be a farming area, but its identity is its people.

02:53Kindness, resilience and an innate drive to chip in and help out. As long as there's people here,

02:59the community will endure. I think it's that cliche of if you don't use it, you'll lose it.

03:06So people do, we put in because that's what we want. That's the community and the world that we want to live in.

03:12That's what we want to live in.

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