Divorces Qld: Gold Coast records state’s highest number of marital splits

The suburbs in this Queensland region make up a third of the top 15 suburbs for divorcees across the state, as the number of splits skyrockets due to new factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Gold Coast has landed the title of the divorcee capital of Queensland with relationship experts blaming the pandemic for “already strained” marriages crumbling.

An analysis of 2021 Census data has revealed Southport is home to the most divorcees in Queensland with a total of 3900 persons officially registering as divorced in the survey last year.

The figure is the highest number for any Queensland suburb or locality – ahead of Surfers Paradise (3340), Caboolture (2796), Buderim (2663), Labrador (2628) and Maroochydoore (2499).

Gold Coast suburbs make up a third of the top 15 suburbs for divorcees across the state but Principal Domestic Violence & Family Lawyer at Southport’s DV Lawyer, Kathleen Simpson said divorce rates in the region “have always traditionally been higher”.

“Years ago when the government put in the first ever DV specialist court it was in Southport and it was for very good reasons – the statistics were high back then in this region – those statistics haven’t change and in fact they have increased,” she said.

“More and more people are realising they’re in a domestic violence situation and that they are with a very controlling partner and they want out – domestic violence complaints go up and so do the divorce rates.”

Family Lawyer Kathleen Simpson from DV Lawyer. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

Although domestic violence does not discriminate, Ms Simpson said “what I’m finding in there is more and more of the younger generation experiencing DV”.

She said younger people are getting married and then getting divorced “fairly quickly”.

“We are having a lot of people coming in having multiple divorces already – it’s not just single rates of divorce, its multiple that are coming through now.”

Ms Simpson said she believes the current housing crisis will “slow” the general divorce rates down.

“People are very reluctant to take that next move because they simply can’t afford it,” she said.

State-wide, the 2021 Census figures show 404,787 people (9.7 per cent of respondents) in Queensland responded as ‘divorced’, up from 354,383 in 2016.

While, the Townsville suburb of Roseneath only registered 127 divorcees, 26,5 per cent of the suburb registered as divorced in 2021, closely followed by Karragarra Island (24.8 per cent), Yowah (23.9 per cent) and Lowmead (23.4 per cent)

Gold Coast firm, Evans Brandon Family Lawyers, run by Dean Evans and Luke Brandon, said pandemic conditions have created “significant stressors” for families where children were homeschooled, parents worked from home, jobs were lost as businesses closed or went into distress.

Mr Evans said cases among his firm suggest an increase in family violence and an increase in separations had followed.

“In relationships which were already under strain, couples have been tipped into increased stress unexpectedly,” he said.

“Many matters are presenting where parties are in need of support for stress and resulting anxieties and depression, yet when inquiries are made for psychology services, demand is such that many psychologists have closed their books to new patients or offer bookings which are attended by significant delay.

“Cases in which we have been involved suggest the Court is now being asked more and more to consider the Orders which might be made in a variety of parenting and financial cases, by taking into account the crises created by housing shortages, affordability and changing employment conditions.”

Mr Evans said existing cases have become more complex, “particularly as values of real property changed remarkably and business performance altered via impacts from the pandemic”.

He said the Court handling family law cases, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, has increased the number of judicial officers available to handle cases, but in many Court Registries, “appointees are working at capacity and usually beyond capacity to serve the public” but cases are “still impacted by delay”.

Originally published as Divorces Qld: Gold Coast records state’s highest number of marital splits