MIGRATION TO THE NEW-SOUTH-WALES NORTH COAST 1986-1991 - LIFE-STYLE MOTIVATED COUNTERURBANISATION

Although Australia's settlement pattern is characterised by a high lev el of primacy, there is evidence of deconcentration and counterurbanis ation as internal migrants move to attractive coastal regions, often p utting a strain on the physical environment and social infrastructure of such regions. Some of the nation's most rapid population growth rat es have been recorded on the North Coast of New South Wales. The paper sets this migration flow in an international context and looks in det ail at the profile, decision-making, and experience of 150 households who moved to the North Coast in the 1986-1991 intercensal period. Resu lts corroborate earlier findings that many coastal migrants are motiva ted by non-economic considerations. 'Pull' factors are much more impor tant thar,'push' factors, with the influence of the physical environme nt, climate and relaxed lifestyle dominant. Many households decided to move without a prior visit to the town in question, suggesting that i t was the overall image of life on the North Coast that was important to them. This image, and thus the migration flows, are unlikely to cha nge in the short-term, making Australia's counterurbanisation experien ce remarkable in terms of its location (coastal ribbon development), d uration (in excess of two decades), and underlying motivation (lifesty le considerations). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .