A council staff member says Glen Innes residents should encourage their educated family members to return to town and create new jobs.
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The Glen Innes Severn council last year did a survey of 90 residents who had either made a 'tree change' to the town or had returned to their home town after a period of education or professional work in the city.
The data shows that these people are likely to be well-educated, skilled and high earners, and were disproportionately more likely to be self-employed compared with the average resident of Australia.
Margot Davis, council's manager of economic development, is herself one of these 'regional returners', coming back to the town where she grew up after a career in advertising in the US, UK and Australian capital cities.
“It’s a great trend for the town to leverage to grow its population and the services associated with that growth and to bring skills into the community that may not already be here in order to contribute to the economic development of our town," she said.
Ms Davis suggested residents using "word of mouth" to encourage their family members to become a "regional returner".
“The community can help by encouraging family to move back home," she said.
“It’s obvious that if we have more skilled people come into the town they will potentially start their own business, or they could potentially fill a role where there is a skill-gap, which in turn could create new roles and opportunities to train younger unskilled people and bring them into the workforce.
"It’s a cyclical thing isn’t it?”
Council's operation plan sets an objective of increasing the population of the shire to 10,000 over the next decade, up from about 8800 as of the 2016 census and also aims to "attract the population segment looking for a lifestyle change" - often called 'tree changers'.
The survey found that of 90 regional returners to Glen Innes over the past decade, 76 per cent had a post-school degree, 55 per cent earned greater than $75,000 per annum and just 3.3 per cent were unemployed. Over one quarter - 27 per cent - were self-employed.
Age stereotypes that tree changers are ageing hippies are wrong; the largest demographic is the 25-44 year olds, and that demographic is on net moving away from cities. People before retirement or at semi-retirement age between 55 to 64 years made up 28 per cent of the entire group and were motivated by being near family and enjoying better health care.
Other respondents indicated they were drawn to a peaceful, open community with lots of space and fresh air, and a temperate climate.
Glen Innes' numbers are confirmed by the Regional Australia Institute, which points to lifestyle, proximity to friends and family, and access to good schools, childcare and health services continues to attract people back to the regions. The late 20s to early 40s in particular was identified as a time of transition which brings a change in priorities, shaping a desire to return to regional Australia to resettle their roots in familiar ground. They also cited much lower house or rental prices and much shorter commutes as benefits.