Established suburbs like Kew and Hawthorn have plenty of schools and green space – but they are not where families are moving.
When Archie-Nhi Hoang moved to Kew from Richmond last year with her young family searching for more space and a backyard, she didn’t realise she was bucking a citywide trend.
The council area of Boroondara, in which Kew sits, saw one of the biggest drops in children from 2016 to 2021, with 1875 fewer children.Kew had 3948 children in 2016 but by 2021 this number had fallen by 242, while neighbouring Hawthorn recorded 3059 children in 2016 and this number fell by 313 in 2021.
“Boroondara’s massive decline in kids shows that despite having many great schools, they can’t stop it from turning into a retirement village if there isn’t enough housing built to ensure it remains affordable for young families.” The City of Boroondara’s director of community support, Kate McCaughey, said it was speculative to conclude that building approvals or any specific urban planning or housing policies were directly responsible for the demographic changes in the area.
McCaughey said Boroondara had a long-term trend to being an older community with 18.1 per cent of its population being aged 65 and older, which is the sixth highest in metropolitan Melbourne. In Tarneit, the number of children increased by 6192 to reach 16,348 in 2021. In Point Cook, an additional 4301 children were added to reach 18,303 in 2021, and in Craigieburn, children increased by 3590 to 16,757.
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