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Patterns, Drivers and Implications of Demographic Change in Rural Landscapes

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Demographic Change in Australia's Rural Landscapes

Part of the book series: Landscape Series ((LAEC,volume 12))

Abstract

The movement of people to reside in new locations – a key aspect of demographic change – is a phenomenon Australia shares with the rest of the world. While most of Australia’s population lives in an urban environment, the dimensions of demographic change are more complex than a steady leakage of rural people to the cities. There is a simultaneous migration of rural people to other rural and regional areas, and urban people to new coastal, rural and regional areas to fulfil the apparent opportunities of a better life. In many respects, the appeal and limitation of rural areas is temporally, socially and spatially specific. This chapter provides an overview of the principal patterns, drivers and implications of demographic change for rural communities and landscapes. While drawing on international experiences, this chapter is framed by the Australian context and outlines the more substantive discussion that follows in subsequent chapters.

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Abbreviations

ABARE:

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics

ABS:

Australian Bureau of Statistics

CSIRO:

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

LGA:

Local Government Area

NRM:

Natural Resource Management

NIPF:

Non-industrial Private Forests

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Acknowledgments

We thank Simon McDonald (Spatial Data Analysis Network), Charles Sturt University, for his assistance in data collation, and are grateful to Professor Jim Walmsley, University of New England, for his valuable comments on an earlier version of this chapter. GWL’s contribution to this chapter was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP0770261).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia

    Digby Race, Gary W. Luck & Rosemary Black

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  1. Digby Race
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  2. Gary W. Luck
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  3. Rosemary Black
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Correspondence to Digby Race .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Land, Water & Society (ILWS), Charles Sturt University, Albury, 2640, New South Wales, Australia

    Gary W. Luck

  2. Inst. Land, Water & Society (ILWS), Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, Australia

    Rosemary Black

  3. Inst. Land, Water & Society (ILWS), Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, Australia

    Digby Race

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Race, D., Luck, G.W., Black, R. (2010). Patterns, Drivers and Implications of Demographic Change in Rural Landscapes. In: Luck, G., Black, R., Race, D. (eds) Demographic Change in Australia's Rural Landscapes. Landscape Series, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9654-8_1

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