Division of sexes creates feast or famine

THERE is a large group of single men living in Melbourne and looking for love.

Singles Annette O¿Brien, 24, and Kelly Owen, 26, at the Turtle Bar in the man-starved Melbourne suburb of Elwood last night. Picture: David Crosling

THERE is a large group of single men living in Melbourne and looking for love.

Unfortunately, they live in Droop Street, Footscray.

It's not a bawdy joke; Droop Street is what demographer Bernard Salt likes to call a "man dam" - a place where single men outnumber single women to a significant degree.

There are precious few of these places. In fact, Salt says, the real problem for women isn't excess men, but the so-called "man drought", which is also the title of his new book.

Salt says the "man drought" is worst in the cities where women go for education and careers.

Droop Street excepted, it is generally only in rural areas - the farming communities and the mining towns - where women can find a surplus of single men.

"It is an issue, and it's come about because of the change of priorities of women," Salt says. "A generation ago, women were content to live in rural Australia and marry the guy next door.

"What they wanted out of life was to get married and have kids. The age of first confinement for women was 23. A generation on, the age of first confinement is 31.

"Women have gained eight years of freedom in their 20s and they aren't hanging around rural Australia. They are travelling into cities for tertiary education, and to develop and establish careers, and when they migrate out of country towns, it upsets the gender balance."

Salt found one town - Glenden, Queensland - where there was one single woman and 23 men vying for her affection.

But the message for women who want to marry generally is: go west. West of Melbourne, west of Sydney, and to Western Australia, where single men are in good supply.

Salt has compiled a Love Map, or "dater base" for women (or men) seeking a partner.

In Victoria, he found single women outnumbering men in the beachside suburb of Elwood. For single, Elwood resident Kelly Owen, there is not so much a man drought as a "gentleman drought". "I don't think guys these days have good manners. They don't necessarily know how to be respectful," said the 26-year-old, who works in student services at Melbourne University. "There are guys out there, but the ones that approach you aren't necessarily the ones you want. But in defence of guys, it's really difficult for them. Some girls like old-fashioned ways whereas others take offence to that. These days, the courting comes second to sex - sadly."

In Footscray, Bruce David Gibson said he wasn't surprised there were a lot of single men in his neighbourhood. "There are lots of refugees and students," he said. "We need to get more ladies over here." Mr Gibson is 45 but thought he looked 60. "I used to be good looking but now I am not so maybe that's why I am single."

In truth, the towns with a lot of single men might not be where women want to live. There are "man dams" in Victoria's Nar Nar Goon (12 single 30-something men to every woman) and Mulbring (west of Newcastle); Narembeen (220km east of Perth) and Hamley Bridge (80km north of Adelaide). There are 13 single men for every woman in Mission Beach.

In Tasmania it's Kettering and Opossum Bay. In Sydney, the single men live in Auburn, in the west. Single women tend to live in inner-west Annandale.

Additional reporting: Lex Hall