With surprisingly comparable wages and a vast differential in house prices, the metro-regional trade-off is compelling. Improved infrastructure has reduced the commute from many regional areas to capital cities, enabling switchers to enjoy a big city income with a relaxed small town lifestyle. The NBN rollout has led to more city folk working remotely or establishing start-ups as part of their lifestyle change. Jobs in the larger regional centres are increasingly plentiful, boosted by a deliberate strategy to decentralise government departments to regional locations. Bendigo is set to benefit from a new GovHub office that will bring 1,000 new and relocated public sector jobs to the CBD. Construction from 2019 will create 70 jobs, with completion due in late 2021.23
No longer sleepy, second tier towns overshadowed by the glamorous capitals, many of Australia’s regional cities have come of age and are now thriving economic centres with hundreds of thousands of residents.
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Trend 3
Regional is the new black
Two other GovHubs are also being developed in Ballarat and Latrobe Valley. Massive infrastructure investment across Australia is also boosting employment in regional centres. After Geelong lost its Ford and Alcoa steel plants, the local jobs market rebounded following federal support for Geelong’s $100 million rail duplication project and a $100 million pledge for an Advanced Manufacturing Fund for Victoria and South Australia in 2017.24 In some cases, average wages in regional areas are higher than capital cities. In Australia’s leading regional city for median house price growth,25 Geelong in Victoria, individuals aged 15 and over received a median $616 weekly income in 2016, $84 more than their Melbourne peers despite higher living costs in the capital.26 ABS27 data also shows that middle aged blue collar workers, in particular, are more likely to be paid similarly or better in regional centres of New South Wales and Victoria.
McGrath Report 2019
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