Population Growth, Urban Sprawl, and New Sinage Laws!

Sunshine state tops population growth
Queensland's south-east has recorded the highest population growth in the country during 2003-2004.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Brisbane and the Gold Coast grew by 17,600 and 13,200 respectively over the period.

Brisbane and the surrounding Moreton region together increased by almost 62,000 people, or around 1,200 per week.

The increase is ahead of Melbourne which increased by about 860 people per week, Sydney's 640 people per week and Perth's 500 people per week.

The outer suburbs appear to be the areas of highest growth in the capitals.

In Melbourne's outer south-east, Casey increased by 8,700 people and Wyndham in the south-west by 8,400 people, while in Sydney's north-west, Blacktown increased by 5,500 people and Baulkham Hills by 3,500 people.

The largest population increase in Western Australia occurred in Wanneroo in Perth's north with 6,700 people.

In the inner cities, Perth recorded the highest rate of growth of 12.1 per cent or 1,100 people, although Sydney had the biggest increase of 5,100 people ahead of Melbourne's 3,700.

Australia's migration to coastal areas continued with the Tweed and Hastings regions in northern NSW increasing by 1,700 and 1,300 people respectively, while in far north Queensland Cairns increased by 2,800 people and Hervey Bay in the south-east increased by 2,600 people.

Mandurah south of Perth increased by 4,300 people.

Away from the coast, inland regional centres such as Maitland in the Hunter Valley, Albury-Wodonga on the New South Wales/Victorian border, Bendigo and Ballarat in central Victoria, and Toowoomba on Queensland's Darling Downs all continued to gain population.

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Population growth poses urban sprawl challenge
By Ben Knight

New figures on population growth in Australian cities are putting pressure on governments to manage urban sprawl.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' latest data show that the rate of new arrivals in Sydney has halved since the Olympic year of 2000, and that Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth have firmed as the nation's fastest-growing cities.

Demographer Bernard Salt, a partner with KPMG and the author of The Big Shift, has documented the so-called 'sea change' phenomenon.

"Every 10,000 people that move to a city take with them $80 million in new retail spending," Mr Salt said. "That will create demand for around 3,000-4,000 new households or houses.

"Population growth generates wealth. It also contributes in some way to urban sprawl but that really is up to the city to manage that growth.

"It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is economic growth; on the other hand, there is the necessity to manage the sprawl."

Playing catch-up

One of the complaints of newcomers to a city is that the area they are moving into does not seem to be ready for them in terms of public transport and the like.

Mr Salt says there has been an issue with the provision of services and infrastructure in Australian cities for 50 or 60 years.

"It is a common feature for people to move to outer suburbia and have to wait for infrastructure services to arrive in that area," he said.

"We're simply not rich enough as a nation to put all of the infrastructure in place and to then wait for the population to arrive.

"Unfortunately, the practicality is that it works the other way around: people move to the outer suburbs and then infrastructure follows.

"The issue is how long it takes for the infrastructure to actually arrive to service that community.

Predominantly suburban

He says Australians are predominantly a suburban people.

"We like outer-suburbia," Mr Salt said. "There is a small group, a renegade group, that is pushing back downtown. The vast majority still prefer the burbs."

Mr Salt says much of the growth in outer-suburbia is actually the transfer of population from the middle-distance suburbs and the inner suburbs to the outer-most edge of capital cities.

"There is certainly an in-flow of overseas migrants but they tend to focus in the inner suburbs," he said.

"So suburban growth on the edge of our larger cities is really driven in large part by internal transfer of Australians simply moving to bigger, better premises on the edge of the city."

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Brisbane to undergo changes to signage laws
Chris Griffith, City Hall reporter
24mar05
BRISBANE is about to undergo a signage revolution with giant electronic graphic display screens like those in Times Square in New York and Piccadilly Circus in London on the horizon.



But the screens, which would play videos and broadcast live television and animated films, are just the tip of the iceberg in the changes to signage law which reverse the more conservative stand of former lord mayor Jim Soorley.

Giant banners mounted on the scaffolding of construction sites, temporary inflatable signs on fixed balloons, blimps, and kites, signs on transport infrastructure such as overbridges, abutments, and piers, and mobile signs on trucks parked at the roadside will be permitted in new local law passed at this week's council meeting in Brisbane.

The law also will allow advertising on footpath dining furniture such as umbrellas and windbreaks but only if the signs display the name of the business or the brand of a product sold on the premises.









And exactly what can be advertised?

Cigarettes among many other things it seems, according to both Lord Mayor Campbell Newman and Deputy Mayor David Hinchliffe who agreed that the council had no power to stop it.

The categories of signs permitted without a licence have been increased from 16 to 28, the types of signs requiring licences reduced from 31 to 21, and the types of prohibited signs reduced from 12 to seven.

The changes require State Government ratification and will be subject to extensive public consultation before coming into effect, possibly on July 1.

One of the interesting changes involves mobile motor vehicle signs.

A cinderella industry has sprung up of small trucks crisscrossing Brisbane with advertising billboards on their rear and sides.

They were allowed under state law as long as they kept moving on the roads; if they parked they fell under council law that banned their billboards.

These small trucks will soon drive and park at will.

Cr Newman said the new signage law was the delivery of an election promise to relax signage and give business a better chance to promote itself.

His original policy centred on increasing the number of permissible sandwich boards outside a shop from one to two – to benefit "businesses run by mums and dads" such as coffee shops, restaurants, and tyre shops.

But he did not want the extra sandwich boards outside shops to impede the disabled or elderly. He said licensing relaxations would see council income drop 51 per cent.

"I've had lots of complaints that council has been heavy-handed in the past," Cr Newman said.

However, Cr Newman said he was not wedded to the changes and the council would act on public opinion.

Cr Hinchliffe said Labor had voted for the changes in line with its promise not to frustrate Cr Newman's election promises. But he had serious reservations about some proposals.

"If we double the number of A-frames outside shops it will be a case of hop, skip, and jump through shopping centres," Cr Hinchliffe said.

He was worried trucks with billboards that roamed in convoy around Brisbane would park in convoy. "And my image of a modern city is not one of inflatable gorillas bobbing around the skyline," he said. "You only have to look at other parts of southeast Queensland to see signage out of control, such as on the Gold Coast.

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Australia's population is on the move and the Australian Bureau of Statistics says most of them are moving to Queensland's south-east corner.

The region recorded the highest population growth in the nation during 2003-2004.

While Brisbane's population grew by almost 18,000 and the Gold Coast's by 13,000, the Sunshine Coast welcomed just under 7,000 new residents - an increase of 3.4 per cent.

Bureau spokesman Matthew Montgomery says it appears the population changes appear to be dictated by the economy, need and the desire for a sea change lifestyle.

"That's definitely one trend that's continuing, but at the same time there's large increases of people moving to outer suburban areas at the same time...what we're seeing is people moving back into inner-city areas and so there's a number of different population moves going on at the moment," he said.

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