A Place At The Coast: Internal Migration and the Shift to the Coastal-countryside
Abstract
Thirty years ago a new trend in Australia’s internal migration turned attention to the warm coastal-countryside. And yet it is only recently that much research attention has been focused on this coastal shift. This article reviews the material on internal migration in Australia, with a focus on New South Wale’s mid-north coast which has experienced burgeoning new-settler populations since the 1970s. It suggests there is much to be done in ethnographic research on this population shift.
Keywords
Internal migration , population shift, coastal-countryside , Coffs Harbour, counterurbanisation , lifestyle
Author Biography
Johanna Kijas
Jo made the shift to Coffs Harbour in 1995 to lecture in History and Australian Studies at Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour campus. Having returned to the south, she is currently completing her PhD exploring a history of contested claims of belonging to places on NSW’s mid-north coast. She edited a book of local histories with two of her students, called Past Lives Fresh Views: Histories of the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales and has recently completed a book of interviews Changing Places: Stories of Coffs Harbour's Transforming Countryside.