Australia has more ‘tiny towns’ but population on the wane

Fiona Battershill and Karl Gray fell in love with the mountains, and each other, and never left.

Fiona Battershill and Karl Gray, with Ethan, 3, and Aidan, five weeks, at home in Dinner Plain, northeast Victoria, population 233. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

Fiona Battershill and Karl Gray fell in love with the mountains, and each other, and never left.

The couple, who met in Dinner Plain in northeast Victoria, are among 200,000 Australians living in the nation’s so-called “tiny towns”, hamlets with populations of less than 500.

“It’s the beauty of the place ... We’re in this little town nestled between the snow gums,” Mr Gray said of Dinner Plain. “Outside the snow is falling ... my three-year-old son, Ethan, can just walk outside and go tobogganing.”

Demographer Bernard Salt has found the number of tiny towns grew in the 2016 census from 644 to 660, but the total tiny town population has dropped since 2011 from 207,000 to 199,000. However, Dinner Plain ­increased its population from 143 in 2011 to 233 in 2016.

Mr Salt said 309 tiny towns had seen their populations fall in the five years, but 294 were growing. “You could go through Arizona, the old Wild West, and find towns abandoned ... but we hang on. The tiny town movement finds a way to make it work,” he said. “We’ve found that if the town builds a social infrastructure — it has a footy club, it has some shops — then Australians will find use for them.”

Mr Salt said there seemed to be a division between people looking for a sea-change, or in Dinner Plain’s case a snow-change, and towns where people went to retire.

Dinner Plain’s 62 per cent population boost appears to be the result of more out-of-towners buying up holiday homes.

“A big multinational recently bought up a bunch of lodges,” ­Alpine Shire Mayor Ron Janas said. “And some families use their holiday home as a permanent ­address.”

Ms Battershill spent her childhood winters in nearby Mount Hotham, but it was not until her family bought a hotel lodge in Dinner Plain in 2008 that she ­decided to move.

“I worked in the corporate world in Melbourne for about 15 years, but I couldn’t resist staying once my family bought the lodge,” she said.

“I’m home in the mountains.”

 

Her soon-to-be husband was the marketing manager for a nearby ski lodge. They are now in charge of marketing for the town.

The Battershill-Grays said a tiny town fostered a greater sense of community, even if everybody knew your business.

“If you need help, you make one call,” Mr Gray said. “We’ve done a couple of home renovations and we end up with locals coming around and helping.”

Ms Battershill added: “You spend an hour getting to work in the city. Here you just walk.”

Ms Battershill had her second son, Aidan, five weeks ago. She gave birth to both children in Melbourne because it was easier to ­access maternity services, but she was not worried about access to health services back in the tiny town. “Quite a few people in town are ambulance first-responders and there’s a nurse down the street,” she said.

When the two boys start school, the couple will have to consider their options as the nearest school is open only in winter.

“Most kids take an hour on a bus to get to the permanent school ... if more families lived here, it would increase our chances of getting a school all year round,” Mr Gray said.