Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Migration and Ageing Processes in Non-metropolitan Australia: An Analysis of 30 Years of Dramatic Change

  • Chapter
Demography for Planning and Policy: Australian Case Studies

Part of the book series: Applied Demography Series ((ADS,volume 7))

Abstract

While a substantial literature on the multi-faceted topic of migration trends and processes within rural Australia now exists, less attention has been devoted to other related and crucial aspects of demographic change, such as falling fertility and differential ageing. Built on a Census-based analysis of demographic change at the rural community scale from 1981 to 2011 and taking the lower Murray/Murrumbidgee catchments as a case study, this chapter provides a longitudinal examination of migration, fertility changes and associated demographic structural change. In doing so, the chapter employs two measures of ageing in the study area relative to that of Australia as a whole: a relative ageing index (RAI), and a related comparative age profile measure (CAP). The impact of structural and numerical ageing processes across and within the case study area over 30 years is summarised. Initially treating community populations as undifferentiated wholes, in analysing the ageing process the chapter takes account of internal changes that greatly impact on future settlement viability, distinguishing particularly between trends in the central towns and their surrounding dispersed rural population. Finally it draws out the relevance of the findings for regional economic and social planning and policy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For the 2011 Census, where CCDs were no longer used, where necessary the equivalent SA1 units were partitioned between catchments as accurately as possible, using meshblock data.

  2. 2.

    The compression of the oldest 5-year age groups into one, (75+), makes no difference to the RAI score, as the RAI is insensitive to the number of age groups. It will give the same value whether 1, 5, 10 or irregular age groups are used.

References

  • Argent, N., & Tonts, M. (2014). A multicultural and multifunctional countryside? International labour migration and Australia’s productivist heartlands. Population, Space and Place. doi:10.1002/psp 1812.

    Google Scholar 

  • Argent, N., & Walmsley, D. J. (2008). Rural youth migration trends in Australia: An overview of recent trends and two inland case studies. Geographical Research, 46(2), 139–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Argent, N., Smailes, P., & Griffin, T. (2005). Tracing the density impulse: Population density as a constitutive influence in Australia contemporary population and settlement geography. Population and Environment, 27(2), 151–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Space-Time Research Pty. Ltd. (1990). 1981/86 census. Belconnen: Australian Bureau of Statistics

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). 2011 census of population and housing: Basic community profile (Cat No. 2001.0). Belconnen: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). (2007). Rural, regional and remote health. Canberra: AIHW.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, A., & Joseph, A. (1998). Rural change and the elderly in rural places: Commentaries from New Zealand. Journal of Rural Studies, 14(2), 155–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, B. (1969). Australia: Wet or dry? The physical and economic limits to the expansion of irrigation. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, A. (2008). Declining youth in-migration in rural Western Australia: The role of perceptions of rural employment and lifestyle opportunities. Geographical Research, 46(2), 162–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, A., & James, A. (2011). Geographies of ageing: Social processes and the spatial unevenness of ageing. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, S., & Bartlett, H. (2008). Healthy ageing in rural Australia: Issues and challenges. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 27(2), 56–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feist, H., Parker, K., Howard, N., & Hugo, G. J. (2011). Rural ageing-in-place: Community connectedness, health and well-being: An opportunity for new technologies? SA Public Health Bulletin, 8(1), 24–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halseth, G., & Hanlon, N. (2005). The greying of resource communities in northern British Columbia: Implications for healthcare delivery in already-underserviced communities. The Canadian Geographer, 49(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han, J., & Corcoran, J. (2013). Ageing Australia: Changing location patterns of older people in South East Queensland. Australian Planner. doi:10.1080/07293682.2013.770769.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, K. (2015). Dams, pumps, pipes and dreams: Water and the making of regional Australia. In A. Hogan & M. Young (Eds.), Rural and regional futures (pp. 84–98). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogan, A., Young, M., & Cannon, P. (Eds.). (2012). Scoping a vision for the future of rural and regional Australia. Canberra: National Institute for Rural and Regional Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horton, G., Hanna, L., & Kelly, B. (2010). Drought, drying and climate change: Emerging health issues for ageing Australians in rural areas. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 29(1), 2–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hugo, G. J. (2008). Immigrant settlement outside of Australia’s capital cities. Population, Space and Place, 14(6), 553–571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hugo, G., Smailes, P., Macgregor, C., Fenton, M., & Brunckhorst, D. (2001). Defining social catchments in non-metropolitan Australia. Canberra: Bureau of Rural Sciences Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hugo, G., Feist, H., & Parker, K. (2012). Linking rural older people to community. Final report. Canberra: Department of Health and Ageing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarvie, W., & McKay, R. (1993). Perspectives on DEET labour market programs, and comment by P. Junankar (ANU Discussion Paper 296). Canberra: Centre for Economic Policy Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirschner, A., Berry, E., & Glasgow, N. (2006). The changing faces of rural America. In W. Kandel & D. Brown (Eds.), Population change and rural society (pp. 53–74). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, G., & Vanclay, F. (1992). Agricultural production and environmental degradation in the Murray-Darling Basin. In G. Lawrence, F. Vanclay, & B. Furze (Eds.), Agriculture, environment and society: Contemporary issues for Australia (pp. 33–59). South Melbourne: The Macmillan Company of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuirk, P., & Argent, N. (2011). Population growth and change: Implications for Australia’s cities and regions. Geographical Research, 49(3), 317–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milbourne, P. (2012). Growing old in rural places. Journal of Rural Studies, 28(4), 315–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pigram, J. (1988). The taming of the waters. In R. Heathcote (Ed.), The Australian experience: Essays in Australian land settlement and resource management (pp. 151–162). Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, J. (1988). An historical geography of modern Australia: The restive fringe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smailes, P. (2000). The diverging geographies of social and business interaction patterns: A case study of South Australia. Australian Geographical Studies, 38(3), 158–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smailes, P. (2002). Rural community social area identification. Adelaide: National Centre for Social Applications of GIS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smailes, P. (2006). Redefining the local: The social organisation of rural space in South Australia, 1982–2006. PhD thesis, Flinders University, Adelaide.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smailes, P., Griffin, T., & Argent, N. (2014). Demographic change, differential ageing, and public policy in rural and regional Australia: A three-state case study. Geographical Research, 52(3), 229–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stockdale, A. (2011). A review of demographic ageing in the UK: Opportunities for rural research. Population, Space and Place, 17(3), 204–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, M. (1975). More and smaller is better: Australian rural settlement 1788–1914. In J. Powell & M. Williams (Eds.), Australian space/Australian time: Geographical perspectives (pp. 61–103). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winterton, R., & Warburton, J. (2012). Ageing in the bush: The role of rural places in maintaining identity for long term rural residents and retirement migrants in north-east Victoria, Australia. Journal of Rural Studies, 28(4), 329–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geography and Planning, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia

    Neil Argent

  2. Department of Geography, Environment and Population, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    Trevor Griffin & Peter Smailes

Authors
  1. Neil Argent
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Trevor Griffin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Peter Smailes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neil Argent .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

    Tom Wilson

  2. Queensland Centre for Population Research, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Elin Charles-Edwards

  3. Queensland Centre for Population Research, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Martin Bell

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Argent, N., Griffin, T., Smailes, P. (2016). Migration and Ageing Processes in Non-metropolitan Australia: An Analysis of 30 Years of Dramatic Change. In: Wilson, T., Charles-Edwards, E., Bell, M. (eds) Demography for Planning and Policy: Australian Case Studies. Applied Demography Series, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22135-9_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22135-9_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22134-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22135-9

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation