Young families fuel rural renaissance as inland migration boosts regional towns, data shows

Morgan Williams believes he struck gold when he and his young family packed up their beachfront home in Perth and moved 100 kilometres inland to York. RAI chief economist Kim Houghton said the index also found the COVID sea- and tree-change movement was having a "ripple effect" on other regional areas. "We're seeing population growth in some of our inland towns that really haven't seen much population change for the past five or 10 years." Port Pirie in South Australia, Central Goldfields in Victoria, Glen Innes in New South Wales, and Gladstone in Queensland were among the regional areas that also recorded triple-digit increases in net internal migration last year. Mr Houghton said the data pointed to a "ripple effect" from the pandemic, which was seeing long-term residents in areas that became popular, and more expensive during COVID, pack up their homes and move inland.