Resource boom times: Building towns and cities in remote places
Resource boom times: Building towns and cities in remote places Conference Paper
5th State of Australian Cities (SOAC) Conference
- Author(s): Haslam McKenzie, F
- Published: 2011
- Publisher: Community Housing Federation of Australia
Abstract: Western Australia has always been city-centric and currently more than 75% of the State’s population live in the capital city, Perth (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008a). For those living in the non-metropolitan areas, the majority live in the lower half of the State (see Fig 1). The more remote regions of the Pilbara and Kimberley in the far north have, until the last decade, represented only about a tenth of the State’s population. However, since 2001, the Australian mining and energy sector has experienced sustained growth and despite the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), resource exploration and mine expansions have continued, spurred along with strong demand from Japan, China and India. As a consequence of the strong demand for labour and high wages, the Western Australian population has been the fastest growing in the country (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009a) putting considerable pressure on housing demand both in Perth and throughout rural, regional and remote areas of Western Australia (Western Australian Planning Commission 2010).
- Urls: http://soac.fbe.unsw.edu.au/2011/papers/SOAC2011_0070_final.pdf
- Publisher Location: Melbourne
- Keywords: mining