{"id":933669,"date":"2026-10-19T11:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933669\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T11:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:14:12","slug":"tropics-welcome-city-dwellers-in-regional-migration-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933669\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropics welcome city dwellers in regional migration trend"},"content":{"rendered":"

City dwellers are moving to regional Australia at rates not seen since the COVID pandemic, according to new data.<\/p>\n

The movement of people out of Sydney and Melbourne is captured in data from Commonwealth Bank, which the Regional Australia Institute (RAI) has analysed to track migration trends.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Sydney accounted for 52 per cent of the net population outflow to Australian regions in the June 2026 quarter. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

The not-for-profit organisation said migration from capital cities to regional Australia during the June 2026 quarter matched the record set in June 2021.<\/p>\n

Those moving to the regions outnumbered those moving to the cities by 30 per cent, and Sydney and Melbourne recorded the largest losses of residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast is the region that city movers are favouring most. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The Sunshine Coast remained the most favoured region for those leaving capital cities, followed by Greater Geelong in Victoria.<\/p>\n

In the 12 months to the June 2026 quarter, the Sunshine Coast received 8.7 per cent of total net migration share.<\/p>\n

Victoria’s Central Goldfields and the New South Wales Snowy Mountains were the most popular for movers already living in regional Australia.<\/p>\n

Beyond the stand-out markets, the RAI highlighted significant growth in north Queensland in the 12 months to the June 2026 quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Geelong trailed the Sunshine Coast with the second-largest share of total net internal migration. (ABC News: Harrison Tippet)<\/p>\n

Tropical takeover<\/p>\n

The sugarcane and horticultural mecca of the Burdekin, south of Townsville, saw a 238 per cent annual increase in the number of city movers choosing the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Retail operator Candace Young moved from Dalby to the Burdekin in 2023.<\/p>\n

She said since the move, she had noticed a stream of southerners moving to the shire of 17,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are getting a lot of city people coming up here, customers coming to the shop who have moved from Victoria or Tasmania,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Here, you can drive five minutes in any direction and take the kids fishing or camping, and those things are free activities.<\/p>\n

“Regional towns are worth it and the people make you feel at home.”<\/p>\n

The Atherton Tablelands region, south of Cairns, received a 131 per cent annual increase in residents from capital cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘A good-news story’<\/p>\n

RAI chief executive Liz Ritchie said the latest quarterly data showed people still wanted to move to regional Australia in droves, years after the pandemic-inspired tree and sea changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is those southern states that are really feeling the pinch in terms of how people are measuring their lifestyle and what they’re hoping for,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It is a good-news story for Queensland.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Liz Ritchie says one in three city dwellers were planning a regional move within five years. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)<\/p>\n

Ms Ritchie said the RAI was lobbying to establish a national population plan to assist regional planning.<\/p>\n

“We continue to under-project population in regional Australia, and our regional communities suffer because of that,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“People on the ground know when their town is growing, and they know when they’re feeling the pinch.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City dwellers are moving to regional Australia at rates not seen since the COVID pandemic, according to new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[132728,64,63,99,5612,45432,9278,5214,2458,16553,208,7688,647,19931,500641,85795,13262,122195,262814,40555,670,13060,16861,32227],"class_list":["post-933669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-accomodation","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-businesses","tag-capital","tag-city","tag-community","tag-data","tag-development","tag-growth","tag-housing","tag-melbourne","tag-migration","tag-migration-trends","tag-moving","tag-regional","tag-regional-australia-institute","tag-regional-towns","tag-residents","tag-sydney","tag-town","tag-transport","tag-trend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}