Outer-Melbourne's Whittlesea, Wyndham and Cranbourne suburban fringe capture surge in new migrants: ABS figures

Three fringe Melbourne municipalities – the focus of new residential community projects – recorded the highest internal population growth in Australia in the 12 months to June 2011, according to the latest ABS migration figures.

According to the ABS, the three statistical local areas (SLAs) to record the highest net internal migration gains in 2010-11 were Whittlesea - North (4,600 persons), Wyndham - South (4,000 persons), and Casey - Cranbourne (2,800 persons) in the south-east.

All three localities were included in plans announced by Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy in June to extend Melbourne’s urban growth boundary with the addition of six new fringe suburbs.

The new suburbs announced by Guy will expand Melbourne’s urban boundary to the north (Mitchell and Whittlesea), to the west (Hume, Melton and Wyndham) and south-east (Cardinia and Casey) by 6,000 hectares.

In terms of Melbourne residential zones, the combined Melton-Wyndham residential zone had the biggest net gain of new migrants, with 9,600 new residents settling in this zone, according to the ABS figures.

According to research by Oliver Hume, four of the 10 residential community projects launched in the March quarter of 2012 were located in Wyndham, three in Melton, two in Whittlesea and one in Hume.

Projects in these suburbs include Villawood’s Pasadena community in Clyde – a 338-lot residential community near Casey Fields, which launched in July last year. The project offers blocks from 388 square metres up to 668 square metres, priced from around $220,000 to $245,000.

The Villawood project is close to Simonds Homes Cascades on Clyde Estate and Stockland's Selandra Rise in Clyde North.

In Wyndham the Dennis Family Corporation’s Manor Lakes master-planned development is already home to 1,500 families with the population to eventually reach 25,000 people. Lots of around 320 square metres are priced around the $175,000 mark, with three bedroom house-and-land packages priced from around $360,000.

The multi-cultural outer south-western Sydney suburb of Canterbury recorded the highest net internal migration loss of the period with 2,600 persons people departing.

Canterbury was followed by Greater Dandenong (–2,000 persons) in the south east of Melbourne and Brimbank-Keilor (-1,700 persons) in Melbourne’s west.

In total just over 2 million people moved between statistical local areas during 2010–11.

This was 1.6% lower than the number of moves estimated in 2009-10 (2.04 million).

On a state-by-state basis, net interstate migration was a source of population loss for NSW, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania over the 12 months to the end of June, with net losses of 13,200 persons, 2,600 persons, 2,500 persons and 50 persons respectively.

Those states and territories where net interstate migration contributed positively to population growth were Queensland (7,200 persons), Western Australia  (6,200 persons), Victoria (3,800 persons), and the Australian Capital Territory (1,400 persons)