Back - to my page on Australian maps, space photos, meteorology and geography, which contains three maps to which this article refers.
Large households used to be the norm, with up to 20 people living in the one house.
Now, one or two-person households are the average in much of the inner and outer suburbs.
Two reports, Melbourne - a Social Atlas and Melbourne in Fact 1996 have provided a snapshot of Melbourne in the 1990s *.
Melbourne's future - children from newborn to 14 years - are growing up on the outskirts in the rapidly growing areas to the north, east, west, south and south-east.
But, once they reach 15 to 24, many leave home, creating growth in the inner city, where their parents raised a family in the 60's and 70's.
Perhaps the starkest figures showing the divide are those with university qualifications.
Just under 20 per cent of Melbourne's workers hold a degree or higher qualification, compared with 9.7 per cent in the 1986 census.
Tertiary qualified Melburnians were concentrated in the eastern, southern and inner suburbs, within about 10km of the city.
Also, in those areas were many of the 53,363 DINKs - couples with dual incomes and no children - who lived mainly in in medium density housing they were likely to be renting.
Melburnians with trade qualifications, who represented 12.8 per cent of the labor force, overwhelmingly lived at least 10km from the city centre.
Almost 250,000 working mums also tended to be scattered through outer suburbs, and in a band from Heidelberg in the north to Beaumaris in the south.
The reports also found:
DECLINING birth rate since the 1970s has led to falling numbers of school-aged children.
ONE in six Melburnians is aged 60 or over and the number is rising.
ALMOST one in three Melburnians were born overseas - most in southern Europe, the UK or Ireland, or South-East Asia.
ALMOST a fifth of households had a weekly income of less than
$300 and 22 per cent received $1200 or more.
During 1971, 33 per cent of Melburnians were employed in manufacturing, but by the 1996 census the number was 17.3 per cent.
The City of Greater Dandenong, *** in Melbourne's south-east, has 32 per cent employed in manufacturing - the highest of any area.
"Our manufacturing industry is still very strong." Planning Minister Rob Maclellan said.
"It's producing more then ever before, but employing fewer people, more automation, more capital, more machinery, and fewer people working in that sector."
But while employment in manufacturing dropped, employment in business service industries doubled.
Jobs in the finance, business and property sectors jumped from 8.4 to 16.6 per cent.
"All these changes are brought about by shifts in Melbourne's economy, society and culture," Mr Maclellan said.
Most professional workers live in the inner suburbs, with the highest percentage in the city of Yarra, where 34.6 per cent were professionals.
Notes by Robin Whittle:
*** Dandenong is a large industrial and working class suburb to the south-west - on the maps it is to the east of Narre Warren and Endeavor Hills.
BTW - I am a manufacturer at heart. I find
it more satisfying than writing and consulting.
Back - to my page on Australian maps, space photos, meteorology and geography.
Robin Whittle 16 April 1998