Figures reveal Melbourne’s western fringe the hot spot for young families

ALMOST one in 10 people in this area of Victoria is aged four and under, highlighting a boom in youngsters. So where is Melbourne’s kid capital?

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MELBOURNE’S west is the state’s kids’ capital, with almost one in 10 people in Wyndham aged four and under.

Census mapping shows Melbourne’s most concentrated area for young children arches across the city’s western fringe.

Wyndham was the hot spot with 9.8 per cent of its population — or 21,381 youngsters — aged under four.

It was followed by Melton (8.5 per cent), Whittlesea (8.2 per cent) and Hume (7.9 per cent).

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Side-by-side shires, Casey and Cardinia, in Melbourne’s outer southeast, also had high numbers.

Melbourne and seaside borough Queenscliff had the lowest proportion of children aged four and under.

Dr Bob Birrell, from the Australian Population Research Institute, said the growing number of children in Wyndham was “striking”.

He said Melbourne’s families were being pushed further from the city centre as property prices soared.

“The pattern is very strong,” Dr Birrell said.

“Once young people move into the family building stage they move out of the city.

“That is because household prices in the inner or middle suburbs of Melbourne have gone well beyond what young families can afford.

“If you want affordable housing, you have to head for the hills.”

Anton, 3, Hannah, 4, Matilda, 4, front row, Ariyan Dahiya, 2, Ryan, 2, and Rubani, 2, are among a ballooning number of kids in Wyndham. Picture: Jay Town.

The Wyndham boom is likely to put growing strain on services and infrastructure, including kinders and schools, in the growth corridor.

Mayor Henry Barlow said the council was planning for the “needs of young families” but more needed to be done.

“With 84 babies born a week, we are in desperate need of more schools,” Cr Barlow said.

“At the rate we’re growing, we need a primary school every year and a secondary school every three years.

“While we acknowledge the investment the State Government has made in education across Wyndham, more needs to be done.”

The council is working with the private sector to attract more Catholic and independent schools to the city’s western fringes.

Maps show Victoria’s hot spots for kids aged four and under.

The Mattsson family, including daughter Hannah, moved to a new estate in Werribee about a year ago.

The development is proposed to have a public primary and secondary school, as well as an independent primary school.

“Part of the attraction to where we are is that a new school is being built and there are plenty of parks and open spaces for families,” mum Nicole Mattsson said.

“We are also on a block of land where we have a backyard. That is what we wanted as opposed to a unit or small block.

“People talk about Werribee and the west as it is far from the city. We are far closer than they think and have a four-lane toll free highway to get in and out of the city.”

Dr Ian McShane, from RMIT University’s Centre for Urban Research, said community infrastructure and services were struggling to keep pace with the population boom on Melbourne’s fringe.

He warned that it could cause “social isolation” among young parents.

“These new communities in Melbourne are likely to be quite diverse and the householders are likely to have come from a whole range of settings and won’t know each other,” Dr McShane said.

“If you don’t have the public infrastructure to enable parents to get together then it doesn’t happen and you run the risk of social isolation.”

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Originally published as Figures reveal Melbourne’s western fringe the hot spot for young families