This document discusses the social, cultural, and community changes that have occurred in towns located in peri-urban areas beyond major cities in Australia. It provides examples from case studies of several towns in Victoria. While population growth is evident in many peri-urban towns, others have experienced population declines. Each town has a unique story and profile shaped by factors like tourism, retirement, employment, and which businesses have opened or closed. Superficial analysis does not capture these important community-level changes, and governments need approaches that recognize the diversity among peri-urban towns.

1. Return to Nothing
Trevor Budge Associate Professor
Community Planning and Development Program
La Trobe University – Bendigo Campus

2. Themes
• The transformation of peri urban landscapes has
been very evident.
• As has population growth in the towns in the peri
urban.
• BUT what has not been so evident are the social,
community and cultural changes that have
occurred in many towns in peri urban areas.
• This presentation provides some observations
and reflections.

3. ‘Return to Nothing’
• This phrase was used by the Australian academic
Peter Read as the title of a book about people
who return after many years to the places where
they grew up and that no longer exist
• This concept has resonance with the peri urban
• It’s a concept that was also explored by a US
Journalist Ron Powers in book ‘Far from Home –
Life and Loss in Two American Towns’

4. Some Case Studies
• Victoria
• Towns in the peri urban arc 50 to 125 kms
beyond Melbourne
• Similar towns around each of the major
metropolitan areas across Australia
• Once ‘rural’ towns, their role was primarily to
meet the immediate needs of a surrounding
rural-agricultural population and businesses

6. Population Change 1991 - 2011
•
•
•
•
Bannockburn 823 – 3,517
Ballan 1,053 - 2,045
Wallan 2,166 – 7,881
Drouin 4,555 – 9,368
But population growth doesn’t necessarily tell the story of change
•
•
•
•
•
Avenel 546 (1996) - 814
Daylesford – Hepburn 3,347 - 3265
Creswick 2,387 – 2,568
Heathcote 1,507 – 1,688
Trentham 632 - 719

7. 10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
1991
1996
4000
2001
2006
3000
2000
1000
0
2011

8. Some case study profiles
• Daylesford – Hepburn – tourism, gourmet
food, alternative and gay community
• Creswick – commuter to Ballarat and
convention centre
• Heathcote – retirement and wine
• Trentham – professional retirees

9. The Trentham story - then
• Timber
• Potatoes
• Manufacture of farm
pumps
Rural service centre

10. The Trentham story – and now
•
•
•
•
•
Tourism
The Red Beard Bakery
The Cosmo Hotel
The Trentham Market
Professional Retirees

11. The changing profile - Ballan
• The Arnell & Jackson Victorian Municipal Directory 1968
entry for Ballan
• Agricultural township with pastoral district, on Werribee
river, with post, telegraph and money-order office,
telephone bureau, savings bank, twenty insurance
agencies, two branches of banks, clothing factory, panel
beating works, three churches, State school, mechanics’
institute and free library (3,000 vols), shire hall, courthouse,
racecourse, cricket and recreation reserve, swimming pool,
cemetery, newspaper, three hotels; electric light. Bowling,
cricket, tennis, golf, football and jockey clubs
• The contrasting story of a pizza shop

12. The changing profile
• What is the ideal size of the town?
• Depends on what you want – Bannockburn
• Who is the biggest employer?
• Depends on who moves there – Heathcote
• What happened to the bank?
• Depends on who moved there - Trentham

14. Trentham - the story of a sign

15. What have we uncovered?
• Each town in the peri urban has its own story to tell
• Superficial analysis using statistics will not tell the story
or uncover what has happened
• Population growth alone does not tell the story
• Each community needs to be understood and its own
narrative needs to unfold through community
engagement and research
• The peri urban is a geographical area but the towns are
not a single typology
• Government policies and approaches that homogenise
all towns in the peri urban are not appropriate