Country Victoria has three of the nation's top five regional hotspots.
Townsville takes out the crown as number one but Campaspe ( Echuca, Kyabram, Rochester), Pyrenees (Avoca, Beaufort, Lexton) and Moorabool (Bacchus Marsh, Ballan) have been named in the top five regional growth areas along with Port Lincoln in South Australia.
The end of the pandemic has still not slowed the shift of people from city to country.
Cost of living pressures in the city and the lure of plentiful work in the country is driving the continued exodus.
Job availability is helping drive the latest wave of country converts, according to the latest research on country migration released today.
Regional Australia Institute chief executive officer Liz Ritchie said the results speak to the trend it is seeing on the ground of an increasingly mobile population in the wake of more job flexibility.
"While this mobility was super-charged by COVID, we are seeing thousands make the move, not only from the cities to the regions, but within regions and more recently, there has been an uptick in the number heading back to the cities."
Ms Ritchie said with more people moving to the regions, than back the other way, the bigger coastal centres remained popular but there was an increasing appetite to move further afield to smaller regional areas.
The RAI has recently identified regional job advertisements grew three times faster than in metropolitan Australia at the end of 2022.
The biggest demand is for doctors and nurses, clerks, receptionists, carers and aides and also sales people.
More people in the major cities like Melbourne and Sydney are heading for a life in regional areas while the number of people moving from regional to the cities is also at its highest point in five years.
The latest update to the Regional Movers Index, compiled by the Commonwealth Bank and the Regional Australia Institute, analyses the quarterly and annual trends in people moving to and from Australia's regional areas.
Capital-to-regional migration has risen 7.9 per cent, its third highest level in the past five years.
Net outflows from Melbourne rose significantly, from 44pc to 51pc, in the 12 months to March 2023.
However, Perth and Brisbane proved popular for movers, recording net inflows of 26 and 24pc, respectively.
Most people moving to the regions came from Sydney, which accounted for 90pc of all net capital outflows.
Across the board, regional Victoria and Queensland were the key destinations for capital city movers.
The number of people moving to regional NSW fell, accounting for 23pc of net capital city outflows, down from 41pc in the prior period.
Commonwealth Bank executive general manager (regional and agribusiness banking) Paul Fowler said demand for labour was soaring in regional areas, driving a surge in mobility across the country and competition among employers for skilled workers.
Regional centres such as Geelong, the second most popular destination by share of migration, and Townsville, the highest growth regional area, were buzzing with business and job opportunities.
"Regional centres are buzzing with business activity and investment, offering an abundance of opportunities to people who are seeking to leave the strain of cities to take advantage of the benefits of regional living," Mr Fowler said.
"Geelong is a fast-growing economy, where entrepreneurship and progress across a diverse range of sectors such as health, construction, manufacturing, tourism, is attracting more movers.
Ballarat was also named as a popular destination with a strong and varied economy.
There are no signs regional areas will fall out of favour anytime soon, Ms Ritchie said.
"Recent RAI research shows one-in-five metropolitan Australians are wanting to make the move to regional Australia with cost of living cited as the key reason as people try and source more affordable housing and a way of living."
"Cost of living pressures are also boosting greater movement within the regions themselves, as regional movers also search out places with more available and affordable housing."
Cost of living pressures helped drive inter-regional migration to rise 9.2pc in the March quarter, to average 12.6pc above pre-pandemic levels.
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Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
