A few interesting facts about the birthrates in Australia and population growth and life in Sydney Australia through my eyes.

I recently read that the birthrate in Australia in 2006 was the highest figure in 35 years.  In my state of New South Wales the number of births fell in comparison to 2005.  There was a national rise in 2006 of 0.3% with a fall of 1.6% in NSW, with the NSW total births that year 87,342.

The Federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, was quoted as saying that the number of births nationally, the highest since 1971 and the second highest in the history of the nation, is a good sign because any increase in the number of children and young people will assist with coping with the ageing population.

25,300 people left NSW in 2007 for other states, by far the largest exodus of any state of Australia.  In Victoria only 1000 people were listed as leaving the state.  NSW is the premier state for migrants however, attracting 46,800 in 2006.  There are now 6,855,000 people living in NSW and the NSW population grew by 0.9% in 2006.  Western Australia's population grew by 2.1% with Queensland coming a close second with a growth rate of 2%.

By the end of this month, June 2007, the population of Australia nationwide is expected to be 21,000,000.

This must seem very minute compared to many other countries in this big world of ours where that many people might live in one city alone.  And yet, here in the city I live in, where I believe there are about 4.2 million people residing, it's crowded.  Traffic is frustrating, roads congested, no real planning having ever been made for the increase in population that has occurred in the years I have lived here - all my life.

The urban area of Sydney is 1,687 square kilometres and the unofficial metropolitan area is 12,145 square kilometres.  Sydney sprawls from the harbour to the Blue Mountains and south and north for many kilometres.  People are being housed a long way from the city and whilst there is quite a lot of industrial work being carried out in some of these areas, the city is still the hub of the business world.  Parramatta which is halfway between Sydney city and the Blue Mountains is growing as a business city where some government departments are relocating to.

I live approximately 53 kilometres from Broadway in the City and travel from out here to the city is either by car which takes in peak times anything from 1 hour each way to 1.5 hours or more.  Travel by train necessitates a bus ride first of approximatley 7 kilometres, or travel by car to the nearest station where if you are lucky you can find a parking spot.  The time to get to the city by train varies, but a normal train that stops at the main stations on the way, will take an hour.  The price for a return ticket for one day is just over $12AU.

Because of the many thousands of people that live west of the city to the Mountains and beyond, the trains are packed like cattle containers.  Fortunately, or maybe not so fortunately as regards the spread of flu etc., the trains are mostly air conditioned to some extent though definitely not adequate in the hot summers.  I prefer I think the old style train where you could open a window.  You can see the fear on the face of people when their station is looming and they are packed in like sardines and have to fight their way out before the doors close and take them on to the next station.  It is real fear;  I have experienced it myself.

Sydney is the most expensive city to live in and with the advent of the many migrants, some areas have been totally taken over by those cultures with the Aussies that have lived there all their lives moving out.  It's a culture I don't understand or like at all.  There are suburbs where I grew up and spent time shopping in that I would never go near now.  I count myself lucky, and call me racist if you choose, that I live in an area that has a majority population of Aussies.  I only have to travel about 7 kilometres though to enter a shopping area where I feel like an alien in my own country.  I often feel I am the only fair skinned person in that shopping centre.  It's very unnerving.

It's particularly annoying, and offensive, to be in a shop where the person serving you is speaking in another language to another person while they are serving you.  I find this totally off the wall rude that in my english speaking country I have to be subjected to people speaking in a language I don't understand and thinking of course, which is only natural, that they could be discussing me.  Otherwise why would someone that speaks english suddenly break into a different lingo?

I believe that many people feel as I do and they are leaving Sydney in their thousands in search of what they have lost from their lives.  The safety we once felt in our city is gone and every day we are subjected to news about muggings, shootings, bashings, robberies.  Where once you could leave your doors unlocked when you were at home, you now lock yourself in securely. 

Our Christian nation is now a multi-religious country where our religion appears to be in a minority and we are confronted with mosques and huge religious buildings even in the suburbs.  There was a time when children were not allowed to celebrate any of our religious festivals because it was not deemed 'politically correct'.  I wonder where that b/s came from?  No longer did they play carols in the shopping centres and children were not allowed celebrate Christmas or Easter at pre-schools or schools.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a full-on religious person but I am staunchly Australian and believe that the rights we grew up with we have the right to retain as our heritage.  If we went to live in any of these other nations where the migrants come from, we would have to live the way they live or we would not be welcome. 

And so, the exodus from Sydney continues and will continue as people find the means to get out and go elsewhere to find that life they so long for.  Western Australia and Queensland are two states where people find a lot of that life again as they aren't places where migrants in the main want to live.  The ones that do go to those states will hopefully integrate and become Aussies. I don't care where people once lived as long as they come to Australia to be Aussies, not retain the same lifestyles they had in their own countries.  If that's what they want and demand as their rights, then they should stay in their own countries.

And if they want to have marches and stop our city from functioning by their lawless activities, then let them go back to where they came from and fight for their people over there, not here in our beautiful city and country.  But like many things in life today, the gates were opened and those that opened them are elderly now or already passed away and will not live to see what we reap from what they sowed in their stupidity and greed.

So there you have Australia today, and in particular Sydney, through the eyes of a 61 year old Aussie.  As always, these thoughts are mine and I wear them with pride and no one will ever stop me from voicing my opinion about my life and how I see it and the world around me.

Have a nice day :)

Vena