Reflections on Berrima and Bundanoon
Following our visit to these towns we were wondering what people did to earn a living in the areas. My friend Denis, living relatively close to the towns, provided some insights, noting a high level of retired folk and commenting on the tourism focus of Berrima.
I thought one way of attacking this puzzle would be to see what the 2011 Census could tell us. While Berrima, as defined as a State Suburb in the Census, has quite a small population of 600 that is enough for some broad analysis.
My first avenue of enquiry was to look at the age profile of the two towns and compare this with NSW in total.
The two towns are broadly similar to each other but very different to NSW. This is shown most dramatically by
For Bundanoon, the proportion of of 70-79 year old folks is also very high with the extreme shortfall extending to the 30-39 year cohort. This is possibly the key finding of this analysis.
Age is a major linking factor between population and labour force attributes. For NSW 45.4% of the population are in the Labour Force. For Berrima the proportion is somewhat lower (43.6%) while for Bundanoon it is much lower at 38.8% - presumably because a high proportion are retired.
Comparing occupations of usual residents in the two towns with NSW as a whole,
... the major under-representation is for Clerical and Administrative workers. That is what happens when an area is not a nodal centre of public administration! For Berrima Sales workers are well over-represented, confirming the importance of the tourist-retail industry to the town. For Bundanoon the over-represented occupations are in the Community and Personal Services group. Drilling down, this appears to be due to a (relatively) high proportion of cops and/or firies. While the lushness of the area, and the many large residences suggested an oversupply of high-priced help in the Managerial and Professional occupations, the two towns show a very similar proportion to NW as a whole.
My final topic for this post is to try to get a handle on commuting: is it a factor in the economic life of the two towns? I had hoped to be able to get at this by comparing the occupational profiles based on place of usual residence (PUR) and place of work (POW). However the lowest geography available for POW is Local Government Area (LGA) so I will attempt some inferences at that level.
Both towns are in Wingecaribee Shire - contributing a mere 6% of the Shire's population. Despite that low proportion, the ocupational profile - at least at the 1-digit level - is very similar for the two towns and the LGA. Before getting down to occupation it might be interesting to look at a map of the Shire, showing its main towns.
While Sydney CBD is about 1:30 by car (or 2:30 by train) from Mittagong the western edge of the Urban sprawl (eg Campbelltown) is probably no more than 40 minutes in a BMW. Wollongong is about the same - so there is a possibility of out-commuting.
The approach I adopted was to compare occupations for people who work in Wingecaribee and those usually resident there. In total there were approximately 3,300 more UR in the Shire Labour Force than there were people who worked there. Not surprisingly, every occupational group showed an excess of UR over POW.
Expressing the the number of folk in each occupational group as a % of the total under the two different counting rules gives a more interesting picture.
.
In interpreting this chart the approach must rely on 'net effects':
It is quite possible that I have over-analysed these data but it does appear that overall the Shire is a net exporter of its workforce. This is particularly true for Professionals, which possibly confirms my expectations (always a suspicious outcome!).
A final issue which arises is the extent to which the usual residents are in fact usual residents. What follows is pure speculation.
One possibility is than some of the high-priced corporate types have a suave abode in the Highlands, leaving spouse and kiddies there during the week while corporate type - of either sex and/or gender - puts in the 15 hour working days based on a week time apartment in the Eastern Suburbs. In this case the worker should be counted as a UR of the City as that is where they spend most nights. However my bet is that the spouse at least works on the principle of 'home is where I am' and reports the commuter as a UR of the Highlands.
I thought one way of attacking this puzzle would be to see what the 2011 Census could tell us. While Berrima, as defined as a State Suburb in the Census, has quite a small population of 600 that is enough for some broad analysis.
My first avenue of enquiry was to look at the age profile of the two towns and compare this with NSW in total.
- the low proportion of 20-29 year olds; and
- the high proportion of 60-69 year olds.
For Bundanoon, the proportion of of 70-79 year old folks is also very high with the extreme shortfall extending to the 30-39 year cohort. This is possibly the key finding of this analysis.
Age is a major linking factor between population and labour force attributes. For NSW 45.4% of the population are in the Labour Force. For Berrima the proportion is somewhat lower (43.6%) while for Bundanoon it is much lower at 38.8% - presumably because a high proportion are retired.
Comparing occupations of usual residents in the two towns with NSW as a whole,
... the major under-representation is for Clerical and Administrative workers. That is what happens when an area is not a nodal centre of public administration! For Berrima Sales workers are well over-represented, confirming the importance of the tourist-retail industry to the town. For Bundanoon the over-represented occupations are in the Community and Personal Services group. Drilling down, this appears to be due to a (relatively) high proportion of cops and/or firies. While the lushness of the area, and the many large residences suggested an oversupply of high-priced help in the Managerial and Professional occupations, the two towns show a very similar proportion to NW as a whole.
My final topic for this post is to try to get a handle on commuting: is it a factor in the economic life of the two towns? I had hoped to be able to get at this by comparing the occupational profiles based on place of usual residence (PUR) and place of work (POW). However the lowest geography available for POW is Local Government Area (LGA) so I will attempt some inferences at that level.
Both towns are in Wingecaribee Shire - contributing a mere 6% of the Shire's population. Despite that low proportion, the ocupational profile - at least at the 1-digit level - is very similar for the two towns and the LGA. Before getting down to occupation it might be interesting to look at a map of the Shire, showing its main towns.
The approach I adopted was to compare occupations for people who work in Wingecaribee and those usually resident there. In total there were approximately 3,300 more UR in the Shire Labour Force than there were people who worked there. Not surprisingly, every occupational group showed an excess of UR over POW.
Expressing the the number of folk in each occupational group as a % of the total under the two different counting rules gives a more interesting picture.
.
- Where the value for POW is higher than that for UR, as shown by Sales Workers, it implies a higher proportion of people from outside the Shire commute in to work than commute out to work elsewhere.
- Where POW is lower than UR (eg Professionals) the converse applies.
It is quite possible that I have over-analysed these data but it does appear that overall the Shire is a net exporter of its workforce. This is particularly true for Professionals, which possibly confirms my expectations (always a suspicious outcome!).
A final issue which arises is the extent to which the usual residents are in fact usual residents. What follows is pure speculation.
One possibility is than some of the high-priced corporate types have a suave abode in the Highlands, leaving spouse and kiddies there during the week while corporate type - of either sex and/or gender - puts in the 15 hour working days based on a week time apartment in the Eastern Suburbs. In this case the worker should be counted as a UR of the City as that is where they spend most nights. However my bet is that the spouse at least works on the principle of 'home is where I am' and reports the commuter as a UR of the Highlands.
Comments