Australian Demographic Maps Thread

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Map 10 - Proportion of People living in Victorian State Electorates, who identify as being indigenous Australians.



This one is pretty much the inverse of all the earlier ones - lower percentages in metropolitan Melbourne, with higher percentages in rural and regional areas. The Melbourne electorate with the highest proportion of indigenous Australians was Preston (Northern Metropolitan). There are only three electorates with an indigenous population of more than 2% of the total population, and all are rural areas - Gippsland East (Eastern Victoria), Mildura (Northern Victoria) and Shepparton (Northern Victoria).

Preston (1.1%), Gippsland East (2.4%), Mildura (3.2%) and Shepparton (3.3%) are all well over the Victorian average of 0.6%.

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Map 11 - Population Density



Utterly unsurprising - lots of people live close to the city and fewer live in the country... who woulda thunked it? Also, since electorates are supposedly roughly equal in terms of enrolment, one should expect that the smaller electorates have higher population density. Some areas with a large number of immigrants (not yet citizens) or families with children under the age of 18 (not yet old enough to vote) may have a higher population density than the electorate boundary would suggest, but I'm not seeing anything surprising. Narre Warren South (Southeastern Metropolitan, with the bit that juts out to the east - indeed, probably the easternmost point of Southeastern Metro) is probably the electorate to take the most from... it's suburbia that is growing and contains plenty of new young families. Population growth since the redistribution means that it is the electorate most over-quota in the state (if I remember correctly... if it's not the top, it's certainly in the top three). This statistic is replicated here, in that it is a slightly larger electorate with a higher population densitiy than other electorates of a similar size. Also, as it contains mostly young families, there are probably a larger number of children living in the electorate - included in population counts, but not in enrolments.

The electorates with the highest population densities are all closest to the CBD (although not the electorate containing the CBD - obviously the large number of commercial properties/highrises downtown decrease it): Oakleigh (Southern Metropolitan), Albert Park (Southern Metropolitan), Hawthorn (Southern Metropolitan), Caulfield (Southern Metropolitan), Brunswick (Northern Metropolitan), Richmond (Northern Metropolitan) and Prahran (Southern Metropolitan).

Oakleigh (2,910.0) and Caulfield (3,655.6) have a fairly large number of blocks of flats of twenty or so units, many built in the 1960s, I would suspect. I live in one such building. I don't know about Hawthorn (3,073.4), although I suspect it is much the same, although with the apartments being more modern. Albert Park (2,979.0) has experienced much gentrification and demographic change over the past 15-20 years or so. Rail yards on the south bank of the Yarra River, opposite the CBD (and contained in the electorate of Albert Park), now have been replaced by Crown Casino and Eureka Towers - for a while the tallest residential highrise in the world. There has also been much development along the bayside waterfront. If Narre Warren South is the most over-populated electorate, I think Albert Park is the second.

Brunswick (3,795.9) and Richmond (3,976.1) have also experienced demographic change over the past decade or so, with more trendy apartments being built. Brunswick is to the north of the city and many students live there, while Richmond is just to the east of the city. There also are several Ministry of Housing Towers in both Brunswick and Richmond.

Prahran (4,596.7) is the most dense electorate in Victoria, and well above the Victorian average of 21.4 people per square kilometre. It would be even more dense, but it contains the Botanic Gardens, Fawkner Park and other large open areas. There are several Ministry of Housing Towers in Prahran, a couple of them by Chapel Street and I think another couple in Windsor towards the southern end of the electorate. Consequently, Prahran is a diverse and polarised electorate, ranging from the Tower Blocks to expensive waterfront properties. The primary vote for the Liberal Party at the last election ranged from less than a third in Windsor (under a quarter in some St Kilda booths), through to over two-thirds in Toorak. The Greens outpolled the Liberals in the St Kilda booths. Those results were also reflected in the Two Party Preferred, where the Liberals received almost three-quarters of the vote in Toorak, but just a quarter of the vote in Redan Central and a third of the vote in St Kilda and Windsor.

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Map 12 - Proportion of the population aged 0-4 years



The research paper I've been using notes: "The highest proportions are found in outer metropolitan growth corridor electorates which attract young families to their affordable housing estates. The lowest proportions are located in inner metropolitan Melbourne seats, and a belt of well established central, eastern and south-eastern suburbs electorates."

The highest proportion is in Narre Warren South (Southeastern Metropolitan), where there were 7,468 children aged 0-4 years at the time of the 2006 Census.

The next three top seats are Keilor (Western Metropolitan), Cranbourne (Southeastern Metropolitan) and Altona (Western Metropolitan).

While the Victorian average is 6.2%, these seats have many more young children: Altona (8.1%), Cranbourne (8.1%), Keilor (8.2%) and Narre Warren South (9.2%).

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Map 13 - Proportion of the population aged 5-14 years



Similarly to the map of 0-4 year olds, this 5-14 year olds are concentrated in the outer suburbs, where young families are residing.

Especially high electorates include Ferntree Gully (Eastern Metropolitan), Cranbourne (Southeastern Metropolitan), Yan Yean (Northern Metropolitan), Gembrook (Eastern Victoria), Keilor (Western Metropolitan), Yuroke (Western Metropolitan), Macedon (Northern Victoria), Narre Warren North (Southeastern Metropolitan), Broadmeadows (Northern Metropolitan) and Narre Warren South (Southeastern Metropolitan).

Ferntree Gully (16.0%) is the north-south oriented electorate in the southeastern corner of Eastern Metropolitan. It is the most marginal seat in the Victorian Parliament (held the title for most marginal seat in Australia until Fran Bailey hung on in McEwan), being won by the Liberal Party by just 27 votes, or 0.04%. Cranbourne (16.0%) is the east-west oriented electorate in the southeastern corner of Southeastern Metropolitan, directly to the south of Lyndhurst and Narre Warren South.

Yan Yean (16.3%) is the largest electorate in metropolitan Melbourne, stretching across the north of the city. Gembrook (16.4%) stretches from the outer suburban estates on the eastern edge of town, out to smaller townships and borders on Ferntree Gully, Narre Warren North and Narre Warren South, and also on Bass to the south. Belgrave, known for it's alternative lifestyle, is divided between Gembrook and Monbulk.

Keilor (16.5%) is growing in population with many new housing estates in the Watergardens area. Adjacent to it is Yuroke (16.6%) to the northeast and Macedon (16.6%) to the north. Roughly half of Macedon lives in the town of Sunbury, which is in the corner of the electorate, between Keilor and Yuroke, so in many ways, Sunbury could be considered to be a part of Melbourne. Five minutes' drive from Sunbury into Yuroke is the airport, and Sunbury and the airport are both in the municipality of Hume. Sunbury is connected to Melbourne by a regional rail service, which continues up to Bendigo (the electrification of the St Albans/Sydenham line is at Watergardens rail station in Keilor), however the Government has announced that electrification to Sunbury will occur. Consequently, Sunbury has more in common with electorates of Western and Northern Metropolitan, than it does with the remainder of the Macedon electorate and the rest of the Northern Victoria Region, so I would suspect that the next redistribution will move it back into a Metropolitan Region (aided by massive population growth on the western outskirts of Melbourne, requiring significant changes to boundaries in the area).

Narre Warren North (16.6%) is directly to the north of Narre Warren South, but to the south of Ferntree Gully. Broadmeadows (16.6%) is to the south-west of Yan Yean, and south and east of Yuroke.

Narre Warren South (18.1%) is again the highest, and is therefore most susceptible to the much-documented (on the Election 2012 Board) Age Wave.

The Victorian Average is 13.1%.

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Map 14 - Proportion of the population aged 15-24 years



Somewhat unsurprisingly, the electorates with the most youth in them are generally electorates with educational facilities. Melbourne (Northern Metropolitan) which contains Melbourne University stands out as having the greatest concentration, although Bundoora (Northern Metropolitan) which contains Deakin University and Clayton (Southeastern Metropolitan) which contains Monash University, also stand out. I'm not sure about Hawthorn (Southern Metropolitan) and Scoresby (Eastern Metropolitan), although I suspect that Scoresby is because much of the electorate was a new estate at about the time people with children aged 15-24 years were looking to buy a house.

I was a little surprised by the strength of Bendigo East (Northern Victoria), although it may stand out more than otherwise because of the comparably low levels of young people in neighbouring electorates. Burwood (Southern Metropolitan), Melton (Western Victoria), Mill Park (Northern Metropolitan), Narre Warren North (Southeastern Metropolitan) and Eltham (Eastern Metropolitan) all contain a higher proportion of young people, but are not as obvious.

The Victorian average is 13.7%, however those electorates all had a higher proportion. Eltham (15.6%), Bundoora (15.7%), Scoresby (16.4%), Hawthorn (17.2%) and Clayton (19.4) all have a large number of young people living in them, however Melbourne (29.7%) has far more than any other electorate in the state.

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Map 15 - Proportion of the population aged 25-64 years



Almost all electorates have over half their population in the 25-64 year age bracket, with a few notable exceptions. Nepean (Eastern Victoria), Broadmeadows (Northern Metropolitan), Ballarat West (Western Victoria), Swan Hill (Northern Victoria) and Mount Waverley (Southeastern Metropolitan) all have fewer than 50% of the population aged between 25 and 64 years.

Nepean (47.7%) is a seachange electorate on the southern side of Port Philip Bay. This electorate will become more obvious in the next map, especially as it has been towards the lower end of the last three maps, and was the lowest of both this map and the last map.

Broadmeadows (48.9%) has a very high number of children, and was near the top of the brackets of both the 0-4 age group and the 5-14 age group. I suspect that later maps showing single parent families may have Broadmeadows towards the upper end of the list (cheated, flicked ahead and found that it has the third highest proportion of single-parent families). Keep an eye on Broadmeadows, it is going to show up at one end or the other of most of the charts coming up, including lowest % of high income families, highest % of low income families, lowest median income, highest unemployment rate, lowest % of managers and professionals, one of the highest % of people employed in manufacturing, lowest % of tertiary qualifications, lowest % by employment ratio, second highest youth unemployment rate, lowest participation rate, lowest level of women in the workforce... anyway, you get the picture.

Ballarat West (49.0%) puzzles me a little - it's been sort of in the middle of the maps showing children, and was only three-quarters or so up the list of young people. There's a university there, so I was surprised at how low it was on that one, but regardless, it's not that high up. I might have speculated that it was a bit of a tree-change electorate, but it's less than three-quarters up the next map... I'm just going to have to put it down to "don't know what's going on here."

Swan Hill (49.4%) is a rural electorate. I'm not entirely certain the reason for it, although it comes second (after Nepean) on the next map. By not entirely certain of the reason - I mean, I'm not sure if it's a tree-change electorate, where people are settling after retirement (probably along the banks of the Murray), or whether it's because many of the younger people have moved away... probably a bit of both, I'd suspect.

Mount Waverley (49.8%) also puzzles me. It comes third on the next map (after Nepean and Swan Hill), but I hadn't thought of it as a particularly aged electorate. I think there may be a few retirement homes and aged care facilities there, but I didn't think there were enough of them to warrant such a high number. It's the southern end of Melbourne's so-called 'Bible belt' but I always thought it was more young evangelical families, rather than retirees. I also thought it wealthy enough that older people living there could afford to move interstate or to the coast or country upon retirement. Perhaps it contains a large number of recently retired people who may be doing the whole 'grey nomad' Winnebago type thing who marked their "place of usual address" on the Census form as being in this electorate. I guess it's a slightly older electorate than Scoresby, in that the people who bought in Scoresby are probably just a few years younger than the people who bought in Mount Waverley, and therefore if Scoresby contained a high proportion of youth as a result, perhaps Mount Waverley has just hit the empty nest stage.

At the other end of the Spectrum Northcote (Northern Metropolitan), Brunswick (Northern Metropolitan), Prahran (Southern Metropolitan), Richmond (Northern Metropolitan) and Albert Park (Southern Metropolitan) all ring the Melbourne CBD to the north, east and south and probably contain a fairly high number of young professionals and young professional couples. Their youth decreases the percentage of children in those electorates, although the concentration of students in the Melbourne CBD reduces its proportion of people in this age bracket.

While the Victorian average is 53.4%, these electorates are all closer to the 60% mark or higher: Northcote (59.2%), Brunswick (59.4%), Prahran (65.1%), Richmond (66.4%) and Albert Park (67.6%).

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Seeing as Shepparton is a constituency based on a middling town... that's a little odd.

Map 10 - Proportion of People living in Victorian State Electorates, who identify as being indigenous Australians.

It's a rural town, though, and does take in a bit of farming communities around it, so Shepparton's strength didn't surprise me so much. Unlike the US and Canada, we don't have Native Reserves, so frequently indigenous Australians live in rural towns and on (eg. cattle) properties.

I was a little surprised by the strength of Bendigo East (Northern Victoria)

This would make perfect sense if there was some kind of university (agricultural college, whatever) in Bendigo... apparently not, though.

That's what I would have thought, but I'm not really sure... Googling "Bendigo East" and as I'm typing it's suggesting swimming club, bowling club, baseball and secondary college... but no universities. Unless that secondary college is huge, I'm not quite sure what is attracting young people to the area.

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Map 16 - Proportion of the Population aged 65 Years and Over



A few things to note... the first that really popped out to my is that ring of middle suburbs of metropolitan Melbourne - any further out and you have young families buying homes and any further in and you have the young professionals and young couples buying in the inner suburbs. The ring, however, is cut on the southeastern side by a string of five electorates with a lower level of people aged 65 years and older. These five electorates are Malvern (Southern Metropolitan), Oakleigh (Southern Metropolitan), Clayton (Southeastern Metropolitan), Mulgrave (Southeastern Metropolitan) and Dandenong (Southeastern Metropolitan). These five electorates all run along the Pakenham/Cranbourne railway line (technically, it cuts through the edge of Caulfield, too, but it doesn't penetrate that electorate very deeply), and there is a university in the middle (Monash, in Clayton).

The electorates with the most people aged 65 years and older were:

Nepean (Eastern Victoria), Swan Hill (Northern Victoria), Mount Waverley (Southeastern Metropolitan), Gippsland East (Eastern Victoria), Benalla (Northern Victoria) and Bellarine (Western Victoria).

I've already mentioned that Mount Waverley (19.8%) puzzles me a little. Swan Hill (20.0%), Gippsland East (19.5%) and Benalla (19.2%) are all rural electorates. I'm not sure if any of these electorates are affected more by an influx of "tree change" retirees, or whether they are more affected by young people moving to the city, or whether it's a combination of both. Of these, Gippsland East could be a combination of both tree change retirees and sea change retirees, because it is both rural and has a coastline. I guess I could take a closer look at some point at the actual breakdown of that electorate and see where most of the 65+ age group live within the electorate. I would be almost certain that Bellarine (19.1%) and Nepean (27.7%) are sea change electorates, most affected by an influx of retirees moving to the coast. These two seats are on opposing peninsulas at the mouth of Port Philip Bay.

Given the massive boom in young families moving into new housing estates in Narre Warren South, it is unsurprising that it has the least proportion of people aged over 65 years (5.3%). The Victorian average is 13.7%.

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Maybe there's an army installation in the constituency? It does take in quite a few rural areas along with half of Bendigo after all.

Now that's a thought! Puckapunyal is up that way somewhere, although I though it was in Seymour... however that would be the nearest major town, perhaps? I'll look into that...

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Perhaps this?
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/bendigo/

Like the maps, even if I don't have a very good frame of reference for VIC.

Cheers for finding that! I also had a bit of a chat with Hugh last night (went for a couple of beers around the corner from here in between posting those last two maps). He has a few additional insights about the youth map, especially in relation to Hawthorn. Anyway, I'll leave that for him to comment on.

What can I provide to give you a better frame of reference? I have quite a few maps and things around the place, so if you'd like, I can upload those. There are a few, however, so I won't do it unless you want me to.

The only thing I knew about Bendigo is that they had some gold there.  I'm woefully ignorant of Australia outside the main cities- SYD, MEL, PER, BNE, ADL and what football code they prefer.

Ballarat also was a mining town during the gold rush. As a kid growing up and learning about Australian history, I always got Ballarat, Bendigo and Bathurst mixed up. I heard a few years ago that it's been estimated that from the time of the Pharaohs until today, 3% of all the gold mined in the world was mined during the gold rush in Australia, in the space of a decade or so. Don't know if it's true or not, but I think the guy who said it was credible.

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Thanks Smid.  I think my lack of reference when it comes to the maps is that I know a decent bit about Melbourne but really nothing outside of that.  My business interactions have only ever really dealt with the major cities and environs so I dont know much about the other areas.  I'll have to educate myself on that.

I knew about Ballarat as well.   One of my kinsman was at Eureka Stockade.  He was tried and acquited of treason

I've updated the first post to include a link to the VEC website's maps section. The 2006 map with margins is too big to upload to the gallery, and probably too big to put on here but you may wish to download it or print it. It has all the electorates, with names of the electorates, names of the MPs and the margins with which the seat was won at the General Election.

Like you, I don't know much about the areas outside of the capital cities, and even then I'm limited to Brisbane and Melbourne, with a bit of Sydney thrown in. I can tell you a little about country Victoria and Queensland, but not an awful lot. These sorts of demographic maps are a good way of learning a bit more about some of the places I don't know. That's what I did when I first moved to Melbourne - pulled out electoral maps and margins and looked at seats and how they compare to federal seats and how the different places voted. I've started to get to know it a bit better now, though.

That's cool about your kinsman!

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Map 17 - Proportion of the Population Not Fluent in English



It is not surprising that the areas with the highest number of people not fluent in English are also the areas with the highest number of new arrivals in Australia (see earlier map). Something I've noted over almost all of the ethnicity maps is Eltham (Eastern Metropolitan), which is constantly at the lower end of the charts - it is certainly the metropolitan seat with the lowest proportion of people born overseas (14.6%), so of all the Melbourne electorates, Eltham is most likely to be comprised of people born in Australia, and also very few recent arrivals (1.4%). It also stands out in this map as being the metorpolitan electorate with the lowest proportion of people not fluent in English (0.3%).

I'm not sure why this is the case, it's sort of on the edge of town, but I don't think there has been much land released near there for development, so perhaps it's not an area that's growing particularly fast.

At the other end of the spectrum, it's not surprising that some of the highest levels of people born outside of Australia also correspond with the highest levels of people not fluent in English. Of the top 10 electorates with the highest proportions of people born overseas, only Melbourne does not appear in the top 10 electorates with people not fluent in English. Since I would suspect many of the people in Melbourne born overseas are international students, who must pass an English language test before being approved entry to Australia, this would make sense. The other nine electorates are Clayton (Southeastern Metropolitan), Derrimut (Western Metropolitan), Dandenong (Southeastern Metropolitan), Lyndhurst (Southeastern Metropolitan), Thomastown (Northern Metropolitan), Mulgrave (Southeastern Metropolitan), Kororoit (Western Metropolitan), Footscray (Western Metropolitan) and Broadmeadows (Northern Metropolitan).

Here is how they compare (ranked by proportion not fluent in English). The first number is the proportion of the electorate born overseas, the second number is the proportion of the electorate not fluent in English:

Derrimut (50.9%) (14.4%)
Thomastown (46.5%) (13.8%)
Lyndhurst (48.6%) (11.7%)
Clayton (52.6%) (11.2%)
Dandenong (48.7%) (10.2%)
Kororoit (44.3%) (10.1%)
Broadmeadows (38.9%) (10.1%)
Footscray (41.1%) (9.9%)
Mulgrave (44.4%) (8.0%)

The Victorian average is 3.1%.

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Map 18 - Proportion of the Population Identifying as Christian



The Australian Bureau of Statistics is defined as including: Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Churches of Christ, Jehovah's Witness, Lutheran, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Salvation Army, Uniting Church and Other Christian.

The next map will look at Proportion of Catholics, so I won't get break things down too specifically just yet, although some of the areas with very high percentages of Christians in the northwest of Melbourne are areas where a large number of Italians settled after World War Two. There are five electorates where more than 70% of the population are defined as Christian: Murray Valley (Northern Victoria), Keilor (Western Metropolitan), Swan Hill (Northern Victoria), Lowan (Western Victoria) and Niddrie (Western Metropolitan).

Whereas the Victorian average is 60.5%, those electorates are substantially higher.

Murray Valley (70.8%), Keilor (71.5%), Swan Hill (71.6%), Lowan (73.6%) and Niddrie (75.5%) all have a very high proportion of Christians.

Seats with the lowest proportion of Christians are concentrated close to the city, including five electorates where Christians are actually outnumbered by non-Christians: Caulfield (Southern Metropolitan), Melbourne (Northern Metropolitan), Richmond (Northern Metropolitan), Prahran (Southern Metropolitan) and Albert Park (Southern Metropolitan) all have fewer than 50% Christians.

Caulfield (31.9%), as I mentioned earlier, has a very high number of Jewish people - one of the highest proportions in the world, according to Wikipedia. Melbourne (38.7%) had a very high level of recent arrivals and proportion of people from Southeast Asia - many of whom are probably university students. This statistic is also somewhat seen in Richmond (42.0%). Prahran (45.3%) and Albert Park (47.7%) were also quite low, and it is unsurprising that the Family First Party does not poll well in these electorates, especially in Albert Park, where it received its lowest vote across the state.

Two regional seats with a very low level of Christians include Monbulk (Eastern Victoria) and Gembrook (Eastern Victoria). These two seats border each other and divide the town of Belgrave. Many people pursuing alternative lifestyles live in Belgrave. The Greens candidate in the area at the last council election received 54% of the primary vote. Monbulk was the regional electorate with the lowest proportion of Christians (50.6%), and Gembrook not very different (52.7%).

I was somewhat surprised by the results for Mitcham (Eastern Metropolitan), Forest Hill (Eastern Metropolitan), Mount Waverley (Southeastern Metropolitan) and Scoresby (Eastern Metropolitan), which I've frequently heard described as Melbourne's Bible Belt. There is a large evangelical church in the area, and although Scoresby (62.2%) and Forest Hill (62.8%) both have a higher proportion of Christians than the Victorian average, Mitcham (59.9%) and Mount Waverley (57.2%) were both below the average. I suppose that it is possible that the church there draws people from a larger area, but that the greatest number come from Forest Hill and Scoresby (specifically, probably the Vermont South area of Forest Hill and the Wheelers Hill area of Scoresby) and that the large size of the electorates tends to reduce the proportion of Christians there.

I was also somewhat surprised by the lower than expected proportion in Oakleigh (Southern Metropolitan). Oakleigh (56.0%) has a large number of Greek Australians and I would have thought that the number of people attending Orthodox churches would have increased the proportion of Christians in the electorate.

The Victorian average was 60.5%.

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Finished the Catholic one, but you'll have to wait for tomorrow for me to post it (going home now).

[Smid]

The TableBuilder on the ABS Census website fantastic for creating maps. The maps are able to zoom in and out, however (obviously) don't provide insets. I created these maps using the table view, rather than the map view, along with the blank map in the gallery. Bigger versions are available in the gallery.

These are all based on Industry of Employment, recorded in the 2011 Census, and federal electorates. I may also possibly do banking and finance, but the others are predominantly rather boring (by the looks of things), with only small differences from the average.


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing


Rather obvious, I think.


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Construction


Not quite perfect, but a pretty close match to where land is being released in the so-called "mortgage belt"


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Manufacturing


Mostly to be expected, there are probably obvious reasons for the couple of surprises I had... Barker and Wakefield (perhaps that relates to the manufacture of wine, I would have thought that agriculture, but perhaps it's classed that way?), and Murray... oh, hold on... Murray-Goulburn dairy manufacturing...


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Mining


Again, rather obivous. I think it is interesting comparing Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney metropolitan areas to the Brisbane and Perth metropolitan areas (Capitals in the mining states... obviously head office types). Within the cities, the more wealthy electorates tend to stand out compared to less wealthy areas (where do mining execs live?).


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Professional, Scientific and Technical Services


Nothing particularly unexpected...


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Public Administration and Safety


A few of the electorates with larger military bases stand out like sore thumbs... I suspect that's what's going on in the Northern Territory, also Herbert (Townsville), Indi (Puckapunyal), Blair and Hughes (I think they both have Air Force bases). The low rating for Flinders (HMAS Cerebus) surprises me, though. The ACT is obvious, and spills over into Eden-Monaro.

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Actually, on second thoughts, Wakefield is obviously heavily into manufacturing - northern suburbs of Adelaide, neighbouring Port Adelaide... I was over-estimating the importance of McLaren Vale, probably because it produces my favourite shiraz (syrah, to the Americans out there).

I think Barker also contains Murray Bridge, which I think has a fair bit of industry.

I was also a little surprised by how many people were employed in manufacturing in Casey and Aston. I think the Knox City Council has put a lot of effort into promoting the Knox Business Park, to attract high-skilled engineering and manufacturing to the area, so that may explain why so many people nearby are employed in manufacturing.

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I noticed Leichardt (Cape York Peninsula and Cairns, in Far North Queensland) was average-to-low on all those maps the other day, so I figured I was missing something. This area contains the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, so I figured the tourism sector was the major employer I was missing...

2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Accommodation and Food Services


"Here be Tourists..."
A few thoughts on that - firstly, tourist areas have more hotels, restaurants, bars, etc, so require more chefs, bar staff, room service cleaners, etc, so obviously a greater proportion of the population in electorates near tourist destinations would be employed in accommodation and food services. Secondly, backpackers often find jobs in bars and cafes, waiting on tables, working coffee machines, or pouring pints. Backpackers frequently stay in tourist areas, so these areas will again have a higher proportion employed in these sectors.

In the cities, employees in this sector live close to the city centre, although not in the more affluent electorates (this is most evident in Sydney, but to a lesser extent in Melbourne and Perth).

Queensland's Sunshine Coast spreads from roughly Caloundra, in Fischer, through Fairfax, and up to Noosa and beyond in Wide Bay. These three electorates, to the North of Brisbane, are very obvious. Wide Bay also includes Fraser Island.

Leichardt, in Far North Queensland, includes Cairns, the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

In North Queensland, Dawson, which runs along the coast to the South of Townsville, includes Mackay, Airley Beach, Hamilton Island and the Whitsunday Islands.

The Gold Coast, to the South of Brisbane, is also very obvious. Moncrief, which is centred on Surfers Paradise, has the highest percentage of all electorates employed in accommodation and food services at 12.72%. Neighbouring electorates Macpherson (to the South) and Fadden (to the North) are also both part of the Gold Coast - Burleigh Heads and Currumbin beaches are in Macpherson (Currumbin also has a bird sanctuary).

Richmond, on the NSW North Coast, includes the Tweed in the North of the electorate, and Byron Bay in the Southern part of the electorate. Cowper contains Coffs Harbour, Lyne contains Port Macquarie. Terrigal, another tourist destination is in Robertson, to the North of Sydney, but near the boundary with Dobell. Eden-Monaro includes both Canberra suburbs and Batemans Bay, and I think also the NSW ski resorts.

In Victoria, in Melbourne's South, the electorate of Flinders includes Sorento and Dromana, but also Phillip Island, which has beaches, penguins and the motor cycle grand prix. Indi has the Victorian alpine region ski resorts. Ballarat has Sovereign Hill, but also includes Daylesford, Hepburn Springs and spa country. The Great Ocean Road is split between Corangamite and Wannon on the Victorian South-West coast.

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I think the NT Public Service rate is most likely due to what Andrew Bolt calls "Indigenous Inc.", although the Military would play a part particularly in Solomon.

It's almost like you knew what Bernard Salt would be writing about in his column today: Are soft public-sector jobs just another form of welfare?

You must be logged in to read this quote.

He goes on to cite other examples, and also list suburbs at the other end of the specturm (wealthy Point Piper, in Sydney, and battlers' Dallas, in Melbourne, both have low numbers of public servants).

[Smid]

Preparing to do some "Occupation by Electorate" maps... The ABS splits managers and professionals. Would people like them split or merged for the map?

[Smid]

As per usual, big versions in the gallery.

2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Labourer



2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Machinery Operators and Drivers



2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Manager


I guess from this, and the high proportion of managers in agricultural areas, that farm owners are classed as farm managers?


2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Professional


Apparently professionals like to live near the city and typically in the more expensive suburbs... who woulda thought it?


2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Technical and Trades Workers

[Smid]

Industry of employment seems more closely correlated to voting patterns than the actual occupation. Probably because labourers and machinery operators and drivers, and tradespeople... The ones employed in the mines, and tradies who are self-employed, vote very differently to the same occupations who are employed in manufacturing. Professionals employed in public administration probably also vote differently to professionals employed in professional services.