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Following on from this morning’s post on the latest ABS Regional Population data (see here) I have taken some time to look at the data for the Cassowary Coast in a little more detail. The data quoted in the first post relates to Local Government Areas and notes a decline of 64 people (or 0.2%) for the CCRC area as a whole. Looking in more detail entails using the Statistical Local Area Level 2 data which unfortunately doesn’t correspond precisely to the LGA area. Nevertheless, we can use the data to come up with the following breakdown of the local areas within the CCRC region and their relative population changes.
| SA2 | 2013 | 2012 | % chg 12-13 | 2003 | % chg 03-13 |
| Innisfail | 9,528 | 9,586 | -0.60% | 9,758 | -2.40% |
| Johnstone | 7,825 | 7,853 | -0.40% | 8,019 | -2.40% |
| Tully | 10,606 | 10,570 | +0.3% | 10,981 | -3.40% |
| (incl CDW and MB) | |||||
| Babinda | 735 | 749 | -1.9% | 680 | +8.1% |
| (the part that covers N INN and is in CCRC) | |||||
So although over the past 12 months the Tully area (which includes Mission Beach and Cardwell) has seen a 0.3% increase, over the decade the decline here has been greater than the region as a whole (which was down 2.5%). This decline came about largely in the years up to (and particularly after) 2006, and again in 2011. Clearly TC Larry and Yasi hit hard in this area.
The impact of TC Larry in 2006 can also be seen in the Innisfail and Johnstone figures which registered sharp drops in 2006 and have been gradually declining most years since then.
Had the Cassowary Coast managed to grow at the State average (24.4%) over the past decade the current population would be some 8,000 higher….a whole new Johnstone!
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