Melbourne suburbs shrinking despite decade boom in population

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While Melbourne’s overall population has boomed over the last decade, several suburbs have stagnated or even experienced an exodus of people, official data shows.

Property industry and demography experts say the uneven settlement of new residents is causing problems for the city, with “heavy lifting” needed from more areas.

Melbourne’s population soared by 806,791, or nearly 20 per cent, from 2011 to 2021, to reach 4.97 million, according to the data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Melbourne added about 186,000 more people than Sydney over that decade, with the northern fringe suburb of Wollert recording the biggest growth of 24,234 people.

Melbourne’s population soared by nearly 20 per cent, from 2011 to 2021. Picture: Jason Edwards

However, places like Taylors Lake, Mill Park and Thomastown each lost more than 1000 residents between 2011 and 2021.

And some suburbs such as Eltham, Balwyn, Ringwood North and Springvale South, as well as a host of regional areas, had modest population increases of fewer than 100 people.

Apart from outer growth suburbs, areas in Melbourne that grew rapidly included high apartment zones like CBD North (up 11,038), Docklands (up 9746), Doncaster (up 5829), South Yarra North (up 5196) and Box Hill (up 4992).

Australian Population Research Institute president Dr Bob Birrell said that despite state government residential infill policies, many areas did not absorb much of the huge influx as had been expected.

“Most of the growth went into the inner area – CBD – and some rezoned precincts including South Yarra North and into fringe suburbs, notably Cranbourne East and Pakenham in the south-east, and areas like Tarneit and Pt Cook in the west,” he said.

“What’s notable is that infill barely impacted on established suburban areas including the affluent suburbs like Brighton (up 561), Balwyn North (up 527) and Port Melbourne (up 960).”

Urban Development Institute of Australia Victorian executive director Matthew Kandelaars said there was an urgent need to work out how best to manage Melbourne’s rapid growth.

“For too long, governments at all levels and of all persuasions have shirked the difficult conversations to provide appropriate density in places close to transport, education and employment,” he said.

Dr Bob Birrell said most population growth has gone into the CBD and some fringe suburbs.

“There are clearly some areas across Melbourne that have done the heavy lifting while others have not. If we’re serious about making our city as good as it can be whilst supporting affordability, then we need balanced supply across both greenfield and infill locations.”

Among suburbs losing population over the decade were St Kilda East (down 601), Surrey Hills West-Canterbury (down 543), Rowville North (down 387), Flemington (down 357) and East Melbourne (down 276).

Some areas outside Melbourne but within commuter distance had big population rises.

These included Torquay (up 9120), Wonthaggi-Inverloch (up 6327), Dromana (up 4127), Phillip Island (up 4067), Koo Wee Rup (up 3437), and Rosebud-McCrae (up 2988).