Australian Demographic Maps Thread

[minionofmidas]

Puckapunyal is in Seymour. (I checked.)

[patrick1]

Perhaps this?
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/bendigo/

Like the maps, even if I don't have a very good frame of reference for VIC.

[minionofmidas]

Quite. Why isn't that mentioned on the wiki page?

[patrick1]

Quite. Why isn't that mentioned on the wiki page?

I think they had one line on it. The only thing I knew about Bendigo is that they had some gold there.  I'm woefully ignorant of Australia outside the main cities- SYD, MEL, PER, BNE, ADL and what football code they prefer.

[minionofmidas]

Quite. Why isn't that mentioned on the wiki page?

I think they had one line on it. 

Yeah, it's there actually; it's just not in the list at the bottom.

[Smid]

Perhaps this?
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/bendigo/

Like the maps, even if I don't have a very good frame of reference for VIC.

Cheers for finding that! I also had a bit of a chat with Hugh last night (went for a couple of beers around the corner from here in between posting those last two maps). He has a few additional insights about the youth map, especially in relation to Hawthorn. Anyway, I'll leave that for him to comment on.

What can I provide to give you a better frame of reference? I have quite a few maps and things around the place, so if you'd like, I can upload those. There are a few, however, so I won't do it unless you want me to.

The only thing I knew about Bendigo is that they had some gold there.  I'm woefully ignorant of Australia outside the main cities- SYD, MEL, PER, BNE, ADL and what football code they prefer.

Ballarat also was a mining town during the gold rush. As a kid growing up and learning about Australian history, I always got Ballarat, Bendigo and Bathurst mixed up. I heard a few years ago that it's been estimated that from the time of the Pharaohs until today, 3% of all the gold mined in the world was mined during the gold rush in Australia, in the space of a decade or so. Don't know if it's true or not, but I think the guy who said it was credible.

[patrick1]

Thanks Smid.  I think my lack of reference when it comes to the maps is that I know a decent bit about Melbourne but really nothing outside of that.  My business interactions have only ever really dealt with the major cities and environs so I dont know much about the other areas.  I'll have to educate myself on that.

I knew about Ballarat as well.   One of my kinsman was at Eureka Stockade.  He was tried and acquited of treason

[Smid]

Thanks Smid.  I think my lack of reference when it comes to the maps is that I know a decent bit about Melbourne but really nothing outside of that.  My business interactions have only ever really dealt with the major cities and environs so I dont know much about the other areas.  I'll have to educate myself on that.

I knew about Ballarat as well.   One of my kinsman was at Eureka Stockade.  He was tried and acquited of treason

I've updated the first post to include a link to the VEC website's maps section. The 2006 map with margins is too big to upload to the gallery, and probably too big to put on here but you may wish to download it or print it. It has all the electorates, with names of the electorates, names of the MPs and the margins with which the seat was won at the General Election.

Like you, I don't know much about the areas outside of the capital cities, and even then I'm limited to Brisbane and Melbourne, with a bit of Sydney thrown in. I can tell you a little about country Victoria and Queensland, but not an awful lot. These sorts of demographic maps are a good way of learning a bit more about some of the places I don't know. That's what I did when I first moved to Melbourne - pulled out electoral maps and margins and looked at seats and how they compare to federal seats and how the different places voted. I've started to get to know it a bit better now, though.

That's cool about your kinsman!

[Smid]

Map 17 - Proportion of the Population Not Fluent in English



It is not surprising that the areas with the highest number of people not fluent in English are also the areas with the highest number of new arrivals in Australia (see earlier map). Something I've noted over almost all of the ethnicity maps is Eltham (Eastern Metropolitan), which is constantly at the lower end of the charts - it is certainly the metropolitan seat with the lowest proportion of people born overseas (14.6%), so of all the Melbourne electorates, Eltham is most likely to be comprised of people born in Australia, and also very few recent arrivals (1.4%). It also stands out in this map as being the metorpolitan electorate with the lowest proportion of people not fluent in English (0.3%).

I'm not sure why this is the case, it's sort of on the edge of town, but I don't think there has been much land released near there for development, so perhaps it's not an area that's growing particularly fast.

At the other end of the spectrum, it's not surprising that some of the highest levels of people born outside of Australia also correspond with the highest levels of people not fluent in English. Of the top 10 electorates with the highest proportions of people born overseas, only Melbourne does not appear in the top 10 electorates with people not fluent in English. Since I would suspect many of the people in Melbourne born overseas are international students, who must pass an English language test before being approved entry to Australia, this would make sense. The other nine electorates are Clayton (Southeastern Metropolitan), Derrimut (Western Metropolitan), Dandenong (Southeastern Metropolitan), Lyndhurst (Southeastern Metropolitan), Thomastown (Northern Metropolitan), Mulgrave (Southeastern Metropolitan), Kororoit (Western Metropolitan), Footscray (Western Metropolitan) and Broadmeadows (Northern Metropolitan).

Here is how they compare (ranked by proportion not fluent in English). The first number is the proportion of the electorate born overseas, the second number is the proportion of the electorate not fluent in English:

Derrimut (50.9%) (14.4%)
Thomastown (46.5%) (13.8%)
Lyndhurst (48.6%) (11.7%)
Clayton (52.6%) (11.2%)
Dandenong (48.7%) (10.2%)
Kororoit (44.3%) (10.1%)
Broadmeadows (38.9%) (10.1%)
Footscray (41.1%) (9.9%)
Mulgrave (44.4%) (8.0%)

The Victorian average is 3.1%.

[Smid]

Map 18 - Proportion of the Population Identifying as Christian



The Australian Bureau of Statistics is defined as including: Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Churches of Christ, Jehovah's Witness, Lutheran, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Salvation Army, Uniting Church and Other Christian.

The next map will look at Proportion of Catholics, so I won't get break things down too specifically just yet, although some of the areas with very high percentages of Christians in the northwest of Melbourne are areas where a large number of Italians settled after World War Two. There are five electorates where more than 70% of the population are defined as Christian: Murray Valley (Northern Victoria), Keilor (Western Metropolitan), Swan Hill (Northern Victoria), Lowan (Western Victoria) and Niddrie (Western Metropolitan).

Whereas the Victorian average is 60.5%, those electorates are substantially higher.

Murray Valley (70.8%), Keilor (71.5%), Swan Hill (71.6%), Lowan (73.6%) and Niddrie (75.5%) all have a very high proportion of Christians.

Seats with the lowest proportion of Christians are concentrated close to the city, including five electorates where Christians are actually outnumbered by non-Christians: Caulfield (Southern Metropolitan), Melbourne (Northern Metropolitan), Richmond (Northern Metropolitan), Prahran (Southern Metropolitan) and Albert Park (Southern Metropolitan) all have fewer than 50% Christians.

Caulfield (31.9%), as I mentioned earlier, has a very high number of Jewish people - one of the highest proportions in the world, according to Wikipedia. Melbourne (38.7%) had a very high level of recent arrivals and proportion of people from Southeast Asia - many of whom are probably university students. This statistic is also somewhat seen in Richmond (42.0%). Prahran (45.3%) and Albert Park (47.7%) were also quite low, and it is unsurprising that the Family First Party does not poll well in these electorates, especially in Albert Park, where it received its lowest vote across the state.

Two regional seats with a very low level of Christians include Monbulk (Eastern Victoria) and Gembrook (Eastern Victoria). These two seats border each other and divide the town of Belgrave. Many people pursuing alternative lifestyles live in Belgrave. The Greens candidate in the area at the last council election received 54% of the primary vote. Monbulk was the regional electorate with the lowest proportion of Christians (50.6%), and Gembrook not very different (52.7%).

I was somewhat surprised by the results for Mitcham (Eastern Metropolitan), Forest Hill (Eastern Metropolitan), Mount Waverley (Southeastern Metropolitan) and Scoresby (Eastern Metropolitan), which I've frequently heard described as Melbourne's Bible Belt. There is a large evangelical church in the area, and although Scoresby (62.2%) and Forest Hill (62.8%) both have a higher proportion of Christians than the Victorian average, Mitcham (59.9%) and Mount Waverley (57.2%) were both below the average. I suppose that it is possible that the church there draws people from a larger area, but that the greatest number come from Forest Hill and Scoresby (specifically, probably the Vermont South area of Forest Hill and the Wheelers Hill area of Scoresby) and that the large size of the electorates tends to reduce the proportion of Christians there.

I was also somewhat surprised by the lower than expected proportion in Oakleigh (Southern Metropolitan). Oakleigh (56.0%) has a large number of Greek Australians and I would have thought that the number of people attending Orthodox churches would have increased the proportion of Christians in the electorate.

The Victorian average was 60.5%.

[Smid]

Finished the Catholic one, but you'll have to wait for tomorrow for me to post it (going home now).

[Smid]

The TableBuilder on the ABS Census website fantastic for creating maps. The maps are able to zoom in and out, however (obviously) don't provide insets. I created these maps using the table view, rather than the map view, along with the blank map in the gallery. Bigger versions are available in the gallery.

These are all based on Industry of Employment, recorded in the 2011 Census, and federal electorates. I may also possibly do banking and finance, but the others are predominantly rather boring (by the looks of things), with only small differences from the average.


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing


Rather obvious, I think.


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Construction


Not quite perfect, but a pretty close match to where land is being released in the so-called "mortgage belt"


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Manufacturing


Mostly to be expected, there are probably obvious reasons for the couple of surprises I had... Barker and Wakefield (perhaps that relates to the manufacture of wine, I would have thought that agriculture, but perhaps it's classed that way?), and Murray... oh, hold on... Murray-Goulburn dairy manufacturing...


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Mining


Again, rather obivous. I think it is interesting comparing Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney metropolitan areas to the Brisbane and Perth metropolitan areas (Capitals in the mining states... obviously head office types). Within the cities, the more wealthy electorates tend to stand out compared to less wealthy areas (where do mining execs live?).


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Professional, Scientific and Technical Services


Nothing particularly unexpected...


2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Public Administration and Safety


A few of the electorates with larger military bases stand out like sore thumbs... I suspect that's what's going on in the Northern Territory, also Herbert (Townsville), Indi (Puckapunyal), Blair and Hughes (I think they both have Air Force bases). The low rating for Flinders (HMAS Cerebus) surprises me, though. The ACT is obvious, and spills over into Eden-Monaro.

[Smid]

Actually, on second thoughts, Wakefield is obviously heavily into manufacturing - northern suburbs of Adelaide, neighbouring Port Adelaide... I was over-estimating the importance of McLaren Vale, probably because it produces my favourite shiraz (syrah, to the Americans out there).

I think Barker also contains Murray Bridge, which I think has a fair bit of industry.

I was also a little surprised by how many people were employed in manufacturing in Casey and Aston. I think the Knox City Council has put a lot of effort into promoting the Knox Business Park, to attract high-skilled engineering and manufacturing to the area, so that may explain why so many people nearby are employed in manufacturing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Brilliant brilliance of genuine and absolute brilliance.

[Smid]

I noticed Leichardt (Cape York Peninsula and Cairns, in Far North Queensland) was average-to-low on all those maps the other day, so I figured I was missing something. This area contains the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, so I figured the tourism sector was the major employer I was missing...

2011 Australian Census
Industry of Employment by Federal Electorate
Industry of Employment is Accommodation and Food Services


"Here be Tourists..."
A few thoughts on that - firstly, tourist areas have more hotels, restaurants, bars, etc, so require more chefs, bar staff, room service cleaners, etc, so obviously a greater proportion of the population in electorates near tourist destinations would be employed in accommodation and food services. Secondly, backpackers often find jobs in bars and cafes, waiting on tables, working coffee machines, or pouring pints. Backpackers frequently stay in tourist areas, so these areas will again have a higher proportion employed in these sectors.

In the cities, employees in this sector live close to the city centre, although not in the more affluent electorates (this is most evident in Sydney, but to a lesser extent in Melbourne and Perth).

Queensland's Sunshine Coast spreads from roughly Caloundra, in Fischer, through Fairfax, and up to Noosa and beyond in Wide Bay. These three electorates, to the North of Brisbane, are very obvious. Wide Bay also includes Fraser Island.

Leichardt, in Far North Queensland, includes Cairns, the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

In North Queensland, Dawson, which runs along the coast to the South of Townsville, includes Mackay, Airley Beach, Hamilton Island and the Whitsunday Islands.

The Gold Coast, to the South of Brisbane, is also very obvious. Moncrief, which is centred on Surfers Paradise, has the highest percentage of all electorates employed in accommodation and food services at 12.72%. Neighbouring electorates Macpherson (to the South) and Fadden (to the North) are also both part of the Gold Coast - Burleigh Heads and Currumbin beaches are in Macpherson (Currumbin also has a bird sanctuary).

Richmond, on the NSW North Coast, includes the Tweed in the North of the electorate, and Byron Bay in the Southern part of the electorate. Cowper contains Coffs Harbour, Lyne contains Port Macquarie. Terrigal, another tourist destination is in Robertson, to the North of Sydney, but near the boundary with Dobell. Eden-Monaro includes both Canberra suburbs and Batemans Bay, and I think also the NSW ski resorts.

In Victoria, in Melbourne's South, the electorate of Flinders includes Sorento and Dromana, but also Phillip Island, which has beaches, penguins and the motor cycle grand prix. Indi has the Victorian alpine region ski resorts. Ballarat has Sovereign Hill, but also includes Daylesford, Hepburn Springs and spa country. The Great Ocean Road is split between Corangamite and Wannon on the Victorian South-West coast.

[Platypus]

I think the NT Public Service rate is most likely due to what Andrew Bolt calls "Indigenous Inc.", although the Military would play a part particularly in Solomon.

[Smid]

I think the NT Public Service rate is most likely due to what Andrew Bolt calls "Indigenous Inc.", although the Military would play a part particularly in Solomon.

It's almost like you knew what Bernard Salt would be writing about in his column today: Are soft public-sector jobs just another form of welfare?

You must be logged in to read this quote.

He goes on to cite other examples, and also list suburbs at the other end of the specturm (wealthy Point Piper, in Sydney, and battlers' Dallas, in Melbourne, both have low numbers of public servants).

[Smid]

Preparing to do some "Occupation by Electorate" maps... The ABS splits managers and professionals. Would people like them split or merged for the map?

[Smid]

As per usual, big versions in the gallery.

2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Labourer



2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Machinery Operators and Drivers



2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Manager


I guess from this, and the high proportion of managers in agricultural areas, that farm owners are classed as farm managers?


2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Professional


Apparently professionals like to live near the city and typically in the more expensive suburbs... who woulda thought it?


2011 Australian Census
Occupation by Federal Electorate
Occupation is Technical and Trades Workers

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Smid]

Industry of employment seems more closely correlated to voting patterns than the actual occupation. Probably because labourers and machinery operators and drivers, and tradespeople... The ones employed in the mines, and tradies who are self-employed, vote very differently to the same occupations who are employed in manufacturing. Professionals employed in public administration probably also vote differently to professionals employed in professional services.