One man's suburbia is another's pile of Saskatoon potash

DID you know that the fastest growing municipality in Australia is no longer in Queensland? Nor is it anywhere along the seachange coast.

DID you know that the fastest growing municipality in Australia is no longer in Queensland? Nor is it anywhere along the seachange coast.

No, the fastest growing municipality in Australia, as measured in percentage terms by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, is now in the middle of Western Australia.

Over the year to June 2010, the number of people living in the Shire of Leonora increased by 13 per cent (or 206) to 1875.

The gold and nickel mining community of Leonora is situated 240km north of Kalgoorlie. This data confirms that the mining boom is now attracting relatively large numbers of permanent residents to truly remote communities.

Well, maybe. Then again, Leonora's meteoric rise to demographic prominence might also be due to the fact that the Rudd government established an immigrant hostel at Leonora early in 2010 in order to relieve the pressure on Christmas Island.

Once the Leonora anomaly is dispensed with, the balance of this nation's fast growing municipalities in percentage terms follow traditional themes: outer suburbia, the seachange coast, inner-city living. These are, according to the most recent figures, the areas and the themes that the Australian property industry should be pursuing.

But I'm bored with Australian demographic trends. Let's see if I can't rustle up some international comparisons for the same period.

The fastest growing county in America, according to the US Census Bureau, is North Slope Borough on the north coast of Alaska extending east to the Yukon. The permanent population of North Slope increased by 40 per cent (or 2700) over 12 months to reach 9400 at June 2010. North Slope Borough contains the largest oil field in the US at Prudhoe Bay with still more oil and gas reserves now being explored off the coast in the Arctic Sea.

Don't you think it's interesting that the Alaskans can actually and significantly grow the permanent population of a remote county whereas the Australians seem content with fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers as a labour solution in remote areas?

Maybe there is a FIFO element to North Slope but if there is, then it is also supported by an expanding permanent population. Perhaps the mayors of several Pilbara and Kimberley shires should see how they do it in Alaska.

I suggest you go in summer.

What about Canada? It's not unlike Australia in scale, demographics (35 million) and Anglo orientation.

That nation's fastest growing locality, according to Statistics Canada, is the biggest city in the province of Saskatchewan, the town they call the Paris of the Prairies, Saskatoon. Now I have never been to Saskatoon and I am sure it is lovely, but Paris? Really? And don't you think Canada has really cool province names: Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut? Sure beats the unimaginative South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

Over the year to June 2010, the number of people living in the city of Saskatoon increased by 3 per cent (7240) to 265,000. Saskatoon is similar in scale to Wollongong, which is growing at 1.2 per cent a year.

Why is Saskatoon growing so rapidly? The answer is not a detention centre or an oilfield, although the broader region does produce oil, uranium and gold as well as several grain-based crops. The reason is that, according to one source, Saskatoon interests command two-thirds of the world's potash reserves.

And what is so special about potash? Potash is the key ingredient in agricultural fertiliser. As the planet approaches 9 billion by mid-century, crop yields must be leveraged higher. One way to feed the masses is with crops fertilised with Saskatoon potash.

Now that is an interesting story behind one town's remarkable rate of population growth, don't you think?

Closer to home, the fastest growing territorial local area in New Zealand is Selwyn, which extends across the western edge of suburban Christchurch. Equalling Selwyn for fast growth is the Queenstown Lakes area.

Both communities added 3 per cent to their population base over the year to June 2010: Selwyn to 40,000 and Queenstown to 29,000. And both communities offer lifestyle: Selwyn delivers suburbia and commuter towns; Queenstown is the South Pacific's premier "adventure" lifestyle destination.

I have no doubt that if I canvassed the fastest growing places in France or Argentina or Germany, similar themes would emerge. It all comes down to lifestyle or a uniquely required local resource -- which might be potash or an underutilised military base that can be put to another purpose.

Regardless of what is driving each place, it is demographics that measure it all and that business needs to understand.

Bernard Salt is a KPMG partner

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