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Demographic Response to Rural Restructuring and Counterurbanisation in South Australia, 1981–1991

Demographic Response to Rural Restructuring and Counterurbanisation in South Australia, 1981–1991 In contrast to the situation in the majority of European countries, and even the US, mainland Australia's settlement pattern of heavy population concentration into only five widely‐spaced metropolitan cities, with limited development of medium‐sized towns, has produced some distinctive features of population geography in its rural areas. One of these is the division of the national territory into three major demographic and socio‐economic zones: the sparsely peopled outback, the mostly rainfall‐dependent farming zone approximating roughly to the cereals/sheep belt and higher‐rainfall pastoral country, and the ‘core’ zone of higher rural population densities favoured by relative accessibility to metropolitan cities and/or amenity‐rich rural landscapes. Using South Australia as a case study, this paper seeks to trace and demonstrate two processes (counterurbanisation and rural restructuring) whose effects overlap to differentiate and characterise the population geography of the latter two zones, separated by a transition along the outer fringe of Adelaide's urban field. Rural restructuring, accelerated by an extended period of agricultural crisis after 1982, has affected the whole State; but in the demographic core zone, it has been partly offset by continued counterurbanisation, resulting in demographic mixing and rural dilution. The 1981–91 population growth in rural communities is shown to be more a function of population density at the outset of the period than of initial population size. Demographic growth over the period is shown to conform to a simple unidimensional scale, allowing the production of a clear, easily interpretable typology of rural demographic change with few non‐conforming statistical areas. At a local level within individual rural communities, demographic decline is shown to be accompanied by increased concentration of the population into small towns, while demographic growth is associated with deconcentration. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Population Geography Wiley

Demographic Response to Rural Restructuring and Counterurbanisation in South Australia, 1981–1991

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
1077-3495
eISSN
1099-1220
DOI
10.1002/(SICI)1099-1220(199609)2:3<261::AID-IJPG38>3.0.CO;2-L
pmid
12347756
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In contrast to the situation in the majority of European countries, and even the US, mainland Australia's settlement pattern of heavy population concentration into only five widely‐spaced metropolitan cities, with limited development of medium‐sized towns, has produced some distinctive features of population geography in its rural areas. One of these is the division of the national territory into three major demographic and socio‐economic zones: the sparsely peopled outback, the mostly rainfall‐dependent farming zone approximating roughly to the cereals/sheep belt and higher‐rainfall pastoral country, and the ‘core’ zone of higher rural population densities favoured by relative accessibility to metropolitan cities and/or amenity‐rich rural landscapes. Using South Australia as a case study, this paper seeks to trace and demonstrate two processes (counterurbanisation and rural restructuring) whose effects overlap to differentiate and characterise the population geography of the latter two zones, separated by a transition along the outer fringe of Adelaide's urban field. Rural restructuring, accelerated by an extended period of agricultural crisis after 1982, has affected the whole State; but in the demographic core zone, it has been partly offset by continued counterurbanisation, resulting in demographic mixing and rural dilution. The 1981–91 population growth in rural communities is shown to be more a function of population density at the outset of the period than of initial population size. Demographic growth over the period is shown to conform to a simple unidimensional scale, allowing the production of a clear, easily interpretable typology of rural demographic change with few non‐conforming statistical areas. At a local level within individual rural communities, demographic decline is shown to be accompanied by increased concentration of the population into small towns, while demographic growth is associated with deconcentration.

Journal

International Journal of Population Geography – Wiley

Published: Sep 1, 1996

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