Wyndham’s population growth will continue for half a century, one of Australia’s leading social analysts has claimed.
Bernard Salt, a demographer who has predicted many of the current growth patterns around Victoria and Australia, says people will continue to gravitate to the outer
west.
“This [population growth] will continue for a generation,” Mr Salt told Star Weekly.
“For 150 years, Melbourne pushed east and south-east. For another 50 years Melbourne will push west, north-west and north.”
He suggested that after that time, urban growth pressure would come to bear on towns such as Sunbury.
But figures being used by Wyndham council extend only as far as 2036, when it is predicted Wyndham’s population will have grown to 384,000 – an increase of 99 per cent on the current population.
The council uses figures provided by forecast.id, a company that supplies statistics to more than 130 local government authorities throughout Australia.
Wyndham council sustainable development director Dean Rochfort said the council was planning for a population size larger than current predictions.
“While population forecasts extend only to 2036, council is planning for Wyndham to grow to over 450,000 people, making it a city comparable in population size to Canberra,” Mr Rochfort said.
“The immediate challenge of this growth is to ensure Wyndham City develops appropriately rather than simply expands.
“To manage this challenge, the council has adopted a growth management strategy that seeks to advocate for greater investment by the state and federal governments to fix current infrastructure backlogs.”
RMIT planning professor Michael Buxton said Wyndham needed improved infrastructure and increased job opportunities if it was to continue growing at its current rate. He said outer growth areas were in danger of becoming pockets of high unemployment and low income.
“Governments should not be locating people in outer urban areas that they can’t service,” he said.
