Interstate rush to Qld during COVID-19 pandemic

Queensland has bucked a major national trend as new figures reveal where Australians are moving during the pandemic.

It’s official. In a crisis, Australians choose to move to Queensland.

The Sunshine State bucked a national trend to record a net increase of 7237 new residents in the September quarter last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The figures confirmed reports from real estate agents and schools of skyrocketing interest during the period from interstate residents, especially Victorians as that state endured one of the world’s toughest COVID lockdowns.

Greg and Danielle Clarke sold their Melbourne house to move to Queensland last year as Victorians endured one of the world’s toughest COVID lockdowns. Picture: Jay Town

Queensland’s gains over the three months dwarfed those of every other state with the next largest net rise of just 631 recorded in Western Australia.

Tasmania (180) and South Australia (77) were the only other states to record a population rise from interstate migration.

Victoria lost 3,749 residents across the three months with the bulk (2,400) moving to the Sunshine State. And about 4000 people fled New South Wales for Queensland.

Just 15,080 Queenslanders left the state during the quarter, the lowest total since 1994, while 22,317 people arrived.

Queensland’s net gain was the largest since December 2017 and about 30 per cent more than at the same in 2019.

Nationally interstate migration dropped to just 76,200 people, the lowest level since 2014.

Danielle Izod and her young family made the decision to move to the Sunshine State from Sydney in August last year but have only just been able to relocate.

Geoff, Danielle, James and Olivia Izod arriving in Brisbane from Sydney this week. Picture: Josh Woning

“My husband is in the army and he’s posted to Oakey, we found out in August that he was posting up,” she said.

The young family including her husband Geoff and children James and Olivia were on one of the first flights from Sydney on Monday this week as restrictions were lifted, allowing members of the Greater Sydney community to enter Queensland without having to undergo hotel quarantine.

“Border restrictions were going to affect us in terms of having to quarantine but we pushed our flights back from Saturday to Monday and we didn’t have to quarantine.”

The ABS figures also confirmed a shift away from capital cities during the pandemic as a net 11,200 people fled the big smoke from July to September last year.

It was the biggest net fall in city populations from internal migration since the ABS began collecting the data in 2001.

Brisbane, Perth and Darwin were the only cities to record a net gain while Sydney and Melbourne lost 7,782 and 7,445 residents respectively.

Brisbane recorded 3215 more arrivals than departures over the three months while Perth’s net increase reached 1388.