Agree that all of the other states have large towns(and larger than Vic towns), I guess the question I was asking is what drives the growth in these towns, or what where they founded upon. Most of Australia lives near the coast or a capital city, but allot of the regional towns in Victoria are inland, defying this trend.
Toowoomba could be another example.
This question arose when I was comparing similar towns and trying to identify the driving differences.
Naracoorte/ Bordertown v Horsham
Deniliquin v Echuca/ Griffith
Renmark (Riverland) v Mildura (Sunraysia)
I just wrote out my reply and lost the lot!!
Okay, to recap, I think I get what you are curious about, many of the Vic towns were settled as gold towns, some went on and thrived, some died..
some of the river cities and town ports were established as the means of transportation, eg Echuca, a river port.
Bothe Bendigo and Ballarat were gold towns, also Maryborough, Castlemaine, Ararat, Stawell, Creswick was too but notice it died down to what is left now.
Victoria is a relatively 'small' state but relatively a large population, from north to south of the state it's 'around' a 6 hour road trip, Mildura to Melbourne. Even if you live in Horsham you are almost midway b/w adelaide and Melb, and a few hours from Great Ocean Road, or coastal towns...
Each 'section'? of vic has it's hub centres, Bernard Salt the demographer likes to call 'sponge cities' they are what I call 'catchment cities' surrounding towns, smaller places population can shift into, but also remember it's more complex than that too. the great inter migration is actually b/w reg. cities to towns and cities, eg Ballarat residents may relocate to Horsham, or Bendigo for example.
Regional Victoria has been the place I have chosen to invest, my reason of part is that I've lived in many of the cities/towns, have observed them over time and am comfortable (at the moment) to park my money where my mouth is. Regional Vic investing has been kind to me, plus I have bought well.
It suits my wants and needs at the moment.
Some reading for you, I find of interest, but does not beat on the ground due diligence and knowledge:
Wikipedia does a basic history of each town and city of Australia, seems to have most places, kind of a good overview if interested in it's whatnots. Just google the town/city name along with wikipedia next to it.
Internal Migration within Victoria
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...+catchment+sponge+regional+cities&hl=en&gl=au
Internal migration in Victoria
Intrastate movement
This section looks at migration trends within Victoria, with particular emphasis on the period 2001–06. At this level of geography, the only reliable source of data is the Census of Population and Housing.
Intrastate movements comprise the bulk of all moves and many of these are over short distances. Of the 1.7 million movers in Victoria over the period 2001–06, 28% stayed within the same SLA, and a further 51% moved elsewhere in the State. This relates to familiarity with an area – research has consistently shown that people are more likely to move to an area with which they have some knowledge. Moving short distances also minimises disruptions to education, employment, and social networks, and may also reflect a desire to improve one’s position in the housing market.
Migration flows between Melbourne and regional Victoria
Despite Melbourne’s dominance in Victoria’s urban geography, it tends to lose population to regional Victoria. As the chart below shows, this trend has been occurring since at least the early 1980s but the volume has been volatile. Between 1981 and 1986, the net loss of persons from Melbourne to regional Victoria was approximately 21,510 persons, a volume that has not been recorded since. This was an era when rural living, and the subsequent migration out of all Australian cities, was at its peak. During the 1990s, net migration loss from Melbourne to regional Victoria in each intercensal period was less than 2,000 persons, but between 2001 and 2006, the net loss increased sharply. This was due to a large decline in the number of persons moving from regional Victoria to Melbourne, while the flow in the opposite direction remained relatively steady.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...vztLgz&sig=AHIEtbRtqgA7xL_eGQA3FTcsxCu0uiIibA
An older report case study:
Migration to (and from) "sponge cities"
ubbo and Wagga Wagga as case studies
Shane Nugent
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Bernard Salt (demographer) sometimes has some interesting books, articles:
http://www.bernardsalt.com.au/publications/the-big-shift/press-releases
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State of Australian Cities
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&source=www.google.com.au
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http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/regional_australia.html
Regional australia
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http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/home/pub...orias-regional-centres-a-generation-of-change
Victoria's Regional Centres
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http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...nds+for+regional+victorian+cities&hl=en&gl=au
-Regional VictoriaTrends and Prospects
Fiona McKenzie and Jennifer Frieden,
Spatial Analysis and Research Branch,Strategic Policy, Research and Forecasting Division March 2010
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Apologies for sloppy arrangement of information, I was neater the first write up...
I don't know that much about the interstate towns/cities, but no doubt they offer some nice investing too, it's just that I like to play in my own backyard at the moment.