Suck it, every other state! New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown that, for the first time ever, Victoria leads the country in net interstate migration. Meaning more people are moving to Victoria than any other state, which confirms what stubborn, staunch Victorians have been saying for years in that if you don’t mind rain, sort-of cold winters, brutally hot and dry summers, misfiring public transport with confusing ticketing systems, social excommunication if you don’t like football, conservative state governments more concerned with building a tunnel that nobody wants than funding education, fiendishly overpriced beer or the occasional gangland war, then Melbourne is easily the best city in the country. Yeah Melbourne!
For the year ending September 2013, Victoria recorded a net gain of 6900 people, which leads the country for the first time ever. The perennial leader of this statistic,
Queensland, has slipped down the ladder to third, behind the upstart
Western Australia on the back of their mining boom. A lot of Victoria’s gain has come from a switch in trend from
New South Wales. Where once Sydneysiders looked north to the sun and idyllic surroundings of Queensland’s coast for their new home, greater perceived opportunity in Melbourne is now driving the trend south,
with the equivalent of seven cars per day heading down the Hume with no intention of returning north.
New South Wales has long recorded a net loss in this statistic that has been more than balanced out by the number of overseas arrivals it receives. Other states to record a net domestic loss were Tasmania and South Australia, both perennial members of this somewhat unenviable club.
So come to Melbourne, everyone! Pick a footy team, commit the names Dennis Napthine, Mick Malthouse, and Franco Cozzo to memory, fill up your car and lets all meet up for a pint, not a schooner, on a rooftop in Fitzroy somewhere.
Unless it’s raining.
It’ll probably be raining.
Photo: Michael Dodge via Getty Images.
