Does Australia have "decaying" towns?

Just saw a doco on youtube about worst cities I the USA and it touched on decaying cities.

* We are lucky in Australia to not really have any decaying towns/rotting towns, but why does it happen in places like the USA/Ireland?

 

A lot of towns littered along the coast north and south of Sydney are decaying. A lot Built in the 70's and 80's where not much has happened since.

 

Not as bad these days as there used to be back in the goldrush and industrial revolution. Towns would pop up to support these and then either dwindle to a shell of their former selves or disappear altogether when the industry or rush ended.

Where I live was a big goldrush town and had a pub, shops, churches etc. All thats left now is a community hall, rest was demolished decades ago and you would never know was there.

 

Fantastic topic.

I was considering this recently when I noticed the prices of property in some smaller towns outside Melbourne. Colac for example 150km west, and Morwell to the east. Can snag a house for little over 100k in each, or something decent enough for a family for 200k. The divide between many state capitals and their country towns is growing, industry is ever-more centralizing, and it is becoming more and more costly to get services such as power and internet out to them. Given the example towns mentioned are actually quite large by regional standards, I do genuinely wonder about the future of so many smaller towns.

 

I think it's a fair generalisation that lots of Australian towns are "decaying". Having said that it only takes one rock star business to breathe life into a small town. A famous pie shop, a garlic shop,

 

What were concidered towns in WA, ex mining settlements, only basically have the old 2 story pubs still standing & kinda run by indigenous
Only thing they didn't burn down

 

Take a look at Maude, NSW. It's not exactly decaying, but it's not growing with a population of only 161.

I spent a few summers there in the 80s. Looking at Google Street View today, it's still got the same general store & post office. The school appears to have been upgraded somewhat and the pub looks like it's been renovated. The bridge is still made of timber.

The town looks like it's still serving the same purpose as it was 30 years ago, which is servicing the local farmers with the town centralised around the weir.

 

How about towns that have been "by passed" ?

Was recently looking at Wardell south of Ballina.

The hwy has been upgraded and only a short trip into town, has the servo and pub, nice quiet spot near the river would be great in retirement

Quick Google search shows it is about to be by passed
Probably not the end of the world for the town as you have to turn off the hwy currently, BUT

 

In the USA, they weren't like Australia's ghost towns or decay - rather they were like suburbs or cities like Detroit - big cities that weren't really renewed,.

 

what is really weird now is that Detroit is booming today, in fact it is number 1 in US for low inventory which means it will continue to boom. I know someone who has now I think 25 homes in Detroit. Boom town now and fear has turned into frenzy to buy but not enough of the suckers to go around.

 

There's definitely regionals which are dying/decaying in SA - there is a consistent population drop in a number of areas where people are moving from regional to Adelaide.

There's a general trend of the younger populations moving to the city.

 

Whyalla, Port Pirie and Port Augusta?

 

A few years ago I was surprised at how run-down Port Kembla was. Most shops were boarded up. The only places doing well were pubs, brothels and puzzlingly bridal shops

 

Do you have a link? Sounds interesting.

Can you name some?

It certainly is interesting that different towns perform in different ways. Some like Parkes and Forbes and others in the Central West of NSW have been putting along since the very early days. Of course, cities like Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo are going great guns. Others come and go. Some, you wonder how they can still get by with their tiny populations but they manage with their antique shop, cafe and nearby farms - because everyone drives through.
Wagga's going great guns too.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head - some towns survive some don't. Check out the trail of disaster along the Hume since the bypasses have been built. Goulburn survived, Tarcutta is hanging in there (barely), Holbrook is still OK, Woomgarma (pfft), Fairy Hole Creek (will never die).

 

Are you sure? have you been to any mining towns in Australia lately. Property prices have fallen back in some towns as much as 50%+
Towns with only one industry.

Have you seen the movie The Big Short, that will give you an idea on why the US property market crashed in 2007, its taken 4 years for the US property market to recover, pretty amazing considering the drops were around 70% in many States.

I am still waiting for blue chip in Perth to recover from 2007 and it only fell back around 20%, 9 years and still waiting

 

Nope but my original sort of reference was to bigger towns, in the USA you get a lot of bigger towns being dilapidated and now being renewed. I have yet to see a suburb in either Vic or NSW suffering for the consequences of urban decay...they are always improved/renewed/gentrified, this is possible due to the fact State governments here have more funds and are much more effective? USA is by and large too big to really manage properly.

 

Whyalla is definitely a place well and truly past its prime. At one point it had a population approaching 35,000 when shipbuilding was an industry, these days the population is down to around 22,000.

 

There are still some whole towns for sale in Australia

Monogorilby QLD 4626 - 1 bed house for sale - 2012735160

2 Mill towns in WA:

$1m for a town-size piece of paradise
For sale: the WA town time forgot

 

I see decay in smaller regional towns in Australia, where population is falling back.

This is a 2014 link be interesting to see whether these towns have continued to decay or bounced back, in particular NSW????

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...w/news-story/393008d9c269fcded9059bbbb399f89b