Hindmarsh on ‘movers’ list

Areportanalysing movements between Australia’s regions and capital cities has revealed Hindmarsh municipality was among the most popular locations for a tree change in the past quarter.

A Regional Australia Institute movers index report showed Hindmarsh Shire Council made a list of local government areas where more than 100 people had relocated to between April and June this year.

Migration to the municipality represented a 33 percent increase on the past quarter and a total of one percent share of total migration.

Hindmarsh mayor Ron Ismay said people’s movement to the municipality was reflected in property sales in the region.

“With all the current negativity relating to the COVID-19 pandemic it is refreshing to see some positive news,” he said.

“The results do not really surprise me as the rate of property sales across the shire is amazing. Recently, houses have not been staying on the market for long. We are seeing a lot of people relocate to this beautiful part of Victoria.

“This is positive news for council and the region, as it is typically larger regional centres or coastal areas that are listed in these types of reports.”

However, Cr Ismay said the report also showed the local government area had experienced a five percent decrease in its year-on-year result.

“Although the data is positive for this quarter, we are cautious the year-on-year results show a decrease,” he said.

“We will await the results of the upcoming census to give a true indication of the population of Hindmarsh shire and population movement.”

The highest rated Victorian local government area was Geelong, with Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and Baw Baw above Hindmarsh.

The Regional Movers Index provides an update of trends identified in a 2019 Big Movers report, which showed in past decades more people had been moving from Australia’s capital cities to the regions.

Migration information is sourced from Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s 10million customers.