83 or the beginnings of urbanisation.

2.9 Urban Population Changes 1947-1971

Urban population changes are partly dependent upon trends in surrounding rural areas, because towns derive a portion of their incomes by providing goods and services to the populations of their rural hinterlands. Large towns tend to be insulated against changes in rural areas because of their functional diversity, while small rural servicing centres are exposed to the full impact of rural changes because of their dependence on income from

More detailed accounts of Figure 2.4 are given in:

(a) Rowland, D.T., 'Aspects of Rural Depopulation in Victoria', in Stokes, Evelyn (ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh New Zealand Geograhy Conference, New Zealand Geographical Society, Hamilton 1973, pp.119-25.

(b) Rowland, D.T., 'Patterns of Urbanization in Victoria', in Burnley, I.H. (ed.), Urbanization in Australia, Cambridge University Press, London, 1974, pp.63-79.

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retail sales, primary processing or financial transactions with the rural population. Often too, urban centres are dependent on other towns for their birth and growth, dormitory centres, coastal resorts and electricity- producing towns being the most obvious examples.

2.9.1 General Causes of Urban Population Change

Some of the causes of urban population change were discussed in section 2.6 where major growth factors were identified for some of the larger towns. These growth factors were of two types: expansion of demand for goods and services in the rural hinterland, and acquisition of industries serving State, national or international markets. Many towns in Victoria have acquired these so-called 'decentralised'

industries whose role in population change has been not only to attract people to the towns for employment, but also to retain part of the town's own natural increase, instead of allowing it to be lost through outward migration. The retention of the local-born population is of fundamental importance in the growth of many small towns, whose internal migration gains come only through movement from nearby areas or from Melbourne. When employment vacancies in a town are filled, however, a ceiling is imposed on further urban growth unless the town's functions have

multiplier effects which attract additional industries and services. In small towns where such multiplier effects are virtually absent, sustained population growth is often dependent on continuing government promotion and intervention to attract new industries. Recent federal and state government policies, however, favour the location of decentralised industries in selected growth centres, rather than dispersal of

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industries among a large number of towns. If such policies are

rigoyfrously pursued, many smaller centres, deprived of government support, will have little or no prospect of continuing population growth unless local initiative can take the place of government intervention.

One important reason for the dependent nature of Victorian towns is that many have lost their original raison d 'etre and have had to adapt by seeking new functions. About one in every six of Victoria's present- day urban centres originated as a gold mining town in the 1850s and

Decentralization Advisory Committee, Report of the Decentralization Advisory Committee on the Selection of Places outside the Metropolis of Melbourne for Accelerated Development, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1967.

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'60s, and many others began their existence as transport towns on the coast, the rivers and at road and railway junctions. Others grew up as rural service towns but had to face mounting competition from neighbouring towns as communications improved and the range of influence of the larger centres expanded.

Adaptation to the loss of diminution of the original reason for existence has taken a number of forms. Some towns, such as the gold mining centres of Walhalla and Matlock failed to adapt at all and faded

into obscurity. Others were successful in acquiring new functions which, while not necessarily stimulating spectacular growth, at least enabled

the town to survive. Towns established on rivers at crossing points, such as Swan Hill, Echuca, Shepparton and Wangaratta flourished as

intensive irrigated farming was introduced, even though at the same time their function as ports was waning in significance. Gold towns, such as Ballarat and Bendigo, persisted as agricultural centres and quartz mining towns after the alluvial gold deposits were exhausted. The size of Ballarat and Bendigo in the nineteenth century gave the two towns an initial advantage as manufacturing centres, an advantage which was probably abetted by their early political representation and their accessibility by railway to

Melbourne. A further regenerative influence in obsolescent towns was the acquisition of service functions such as hospitals, prisons, railway workshops and other maintenance depots for government departments.

Manufacturing industries are found in most Victorian towns and

commonly include brick works, plaster factories, food and drink factories and light engineering works. In addition, many Victorian towns have primary processing plants and wheat silos. These more ubiquitous establishments, however, are not major catalysts for urban growth as their size is fixed by the scale of local production or consumption, and they do not attract many subsidiary industries. With the possible exceptions of Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the Latrobe Valley urban complex, Victorian towns do

The Victorian urban centres of 1971 which owed their origin to gold mining were: Ararat Avoca Ballarat Beaufort Beechworth Bendigo Bright Castlemaine Creswick Daylesford Heathcote Maldon Maryborough Rushworth Rutherglen St. Arnaud Stawell Warrandyte

not have industrial structures which promise to become self-generating. In most towns large factories are few in number and labour intensive, their main role in urban development being to provide employment rather than to generate further growth. Warrnambool, for example, has only three large manufacturing firms - a trouser factory, a woollen mill and a milk processing plant - which together employ three-quarters of the

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city's manufacturing workforce. Similarly at Shepparton the Shepparton 8 7

Fruit Preserving Company dominates the manufacturing workforce, while at Traralgon the Maryvale Pulp and Paper Mill is the main source of

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