Migrants Moving to the Bush

Regional Australia is now more popular with migrants than ever, with more migrants now shunning the major cities in favour of the bush.

Figures released last month by DIMIA reveal that the number of migrants settling in regional areas of Australia increased across all during the 2004-05 migration year.

It is estimated that a figure of 18,700 visas were granted through one of the country’s State and Regional Migration schemes in this period, almost doubling the number nominated through these schemes in the previous year.

Although it’s no surprise that the popularity of emigrating to a regional area of Australia is really taking off - the Australian government has encouraged immigration into rural communities in recent years, introducing schemes such as the State Territory Nominated Independent (STNI) visa, the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS), and most recently the Skilled Independent Regional (SIR) provisional visa last July - the numbers still by far and away exceeded DIMIA’s original 2004-05 programme planning levels of around 15,000 immigrants.

South Australia experienced the biggest increase of immigrants entering the state through the SSRM. Western Australia enjoyed the second-biggest percentage increase, boosting its SSRM immigration by 84.5 per cent.