Interstate migration hits almost 30 year high as the pandemic draws people SA’s regions

COVID-19 didn’t kill the radio star but it forced her to join the more than a thousand people who relocated to regional South Australia in 2020. Have your say.

Britt Alyen was living in Hobart but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and her radio show was axed.

The Melbourne-export was among the 23,833 people who relocated to South Australia in 2020 – the first time the state has recorded a full 12 months of positive interstate migration since 1992, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal.

She was also one the 1306 people who ditched a capital city in favour of regional SA, a net gain for the regions, compared to the 374 that left the year prior.

Radio announcer Britt Alyen moved to Mount Gambier after her Hobart radio show was axed. Picture: Jessica Ball

ABS director of demography Phil Browning said last year saw largest number of people move regionally across the country since it began reporting the data in 2001.

“In the 2020 calendar year, 233,100 people arrived to live in regional areas and 190,200 people departed for the capitals,” Mr Browning said.

“This resulted in a net gain of 43,000 people for the regions, up from 18,900 in 2019.”

Ms Alyen was heartbroken when COVID decimated community events and led to the demise of her radio show – Triple M Community Calendar – in May.

“I used my radio platform to promote primary school fetes and markets and all of those little events that wouldn’t normally get coverage in the media,” she said.

“Not only did it take away my livelihood, but it also took away everything else that I used to do in my spare time.”

The former Rock Quiz production assistant, children’s television screenwriter, radio ad writer and weather presenter landed a role as mornings announcer on SAFM 96.1 based in Mount Gambier in October.

Relocating to SA at that time was not as easy feat.

In the midst of the pandemic moving to Mount Gambier wasn’t simple for Britt Alyen but she hasn’t looked back. Picture: Jessica Ball

“I flew from Hobart to Adelaide, bought a car in Adelaide and drove over because I couldn’t come via Victoria,” she said.

“I had to basically start completely afresh, I came over with a suitcase.

“Finding a house was the hardest thing, I didn’t have a house for the first month and a half.”

Navigating the city’s rental shortage gave Ms Alyen her first taste of Mount Gambier’s country hospitality with a new colleague leasing her their bedroom and moving back in with their parents.

The radio star had never considered moving to SA but loves the slower pace of regional life, the affordable living expenses and having everything within walking distance, or in her case, roller skating distance.

“I think it’s important for your local radio to be a part of the community,” she said.

“I love being able to hop in the car and drive down to Port MacDonnell for a pizza or a walk along the beach, I love being able to hop up to Penola to taste some wine.

“It feels like we have a lot of things right at our fingertips here.”