Eurobodalla Area Profile Population: 37,714 persons (2010 est. resident population) Growth Rate: 3.1% (2006-2010) 0.8% ave. annual growth Key Industry: Tourism & accommodation, Retail, Health & Community Services, Education Urban Centres: Batemans Bay, Moruya, Narooma, Tuross Heads, Tilba Location. The Eurobodalla Local Government Area is located along the New South Wales south coast, approximately 280km south of Sydney and 150km east of Canberra. The region comprises around 3,421.7sqkm of land, between Durras and Wallaga Lake. Around three quarters of this mountainous region is national park or state forest. Eurobodalla is bounded on the east by more than 100km of pristine coastal waters and marine parks with 83 beaches and 4 major river systems and 20 lakes.
The region s primary road arteries are the Princes Highway and the Kings Highway. The main residential centres are Batemans Bay, Narooma and Moruya. People, It is estimated that as of 30 June 2010 the Eurobodalla Local Government Area had a resident population for 37,714 people. Females slightly outnumber males. There were 11 people per square kilometre of land in Eurobodalla. As at 2006, 4.7% of Eurobodalla residents were of Indigenous heritage, while another 14.2% were born overseas. 9.1% were from countries in the north-west of Europe, including the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. According to the last census, 70.8% of the region s households were families while 2.6% were group households. The remaining 26.6% were persons living on their own. Half of Eurobodalla families consisted of couples with no children (51.3%), which suggests an older population with many empty nesters. A quarter had dependent children (25.8%), while another 5.9% had non-dependent children. 16.0% of were one-parent families. The median age in the Eurobodalla LGA was 47, compared to a national average of 37. Nearly one quarter (23.5%) of the estimated resident population is aged 65 years or older. The dominant religions in the area are the Anglican Church (29.3%) and Catholicism (24.0%). 19.1% of residents do not identify with any religion. Population Projections. It is expected that the Eurobodalla Shire s average annual growth rate will increase by 1.3% between 2006 and 2031, taking the region s resident population to 50,287. More specifically, it is expected that the greatest growth will occur in the Malua Bay - Lilli Pilli - Rosedale - Guerilla Bay area (2.1% p.a.) and the Surfside - Long Beach Maloneys Beach - North Batemans Bay area (2.0%). Tuross Head will achieve the slowest growth, at 0.5% each year. Forecasts suggest that the number of households in the Eurobodalla will increase from 15,672 in 2006 to 22,316 in 2031, with the average household size dipping slightly from 2.33 to 2.25 persons. This is consistent with the prediction that the Eurobodalla population is aging. While the number of residents aged under 15 years will increase by an estimated 27.7% over that 25 year period, the number of persons aged 65 years or over will increase by 68.3%. This older age group will account for over a quarter of the Eurobodalla population (27.6%). Females will still slightly outnumber males at 50.2%. With the number of births per year rising to 357 in 2008, the fertility rate in the Eurobodalla Shire has increased from 2.0 to 2.3 since 2004.
Eurobodalla Age Distribution, 2006-2031 85 and over years 70 to 84 years 60 to 69 years 50 to 59 years 35 to 49 years 25 to 34 years 18 to 24 years 12 to 17 years 5 to 11 years 0 to 4 years 2006 2031 20 15 10 5 0 5 10 15 20 Percent of Population (%) Workforce. At the time of the last census, the Eurobodalla labour force consisted of 13,456 people. Nearly half of these were employed in full-time work (47.5%), while a third were engaged in part- time employment (36.7%). 4.1% were away from work on the day of the census. Nearly one tenth (9.1%) were unemployed, at 1,227 persons. The local workforce was fairly evenly split across occupational groupings. 16.0% were technicians and trade workers, compared to 14.8% professionals. Managers accounted for 14.2%, followed by sales workers (12.7%), labourers (12.2%) and clerical workers (12.0%). One in ten employees are community and personal service workers (11.0%), with the remaining 5.2% employed as plant operators. The latest figures from DEEWR suggest that the Eurobodalla unemployment rate rose slightly to 10.4% in the March 2010 quarter, with 1,792 persons looking for work. Income. There were 12,110 wage and salary earners in the Eurobodalla Local Government Area at 30 June 2007 (ABS). Overall they earned $371.4M that financial year, equating to an average of $30,669 per person. Economy & Industry. Retail is the largest industry in the Eurobodalla, employing 20.2% of the work force, followed by 12.0% in Health & Community Services. A further 10.3% were working in Construction, while 10.0% were employed in Accommodation, Cafes and Restaurants. The strength of the services sector in the region is largely explained by the importance of tourism and the growing aged care sector given the increasing proportion of older residents. Traditionally, the Eurobodalla Shire has been an agricultural area, with extensive grazing lands and highly productive dairy producers. Today the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industry accounts for 3.5% of Eurobodalla workers, down from 4.6% in 2001. Other dominant industries include Property
& Business Services (7.7%), Education (7.3%) and Manufacturing (6.0%) while 4.6% of Eurobodalla workers were employed in Cafes, Restaurants and Takeaway Food Services. INDUSTRY EURO AUST Retail Trade Accommodation & Food Services Health Care & Social Assistance Construction Education & Training Public Administration & Safety Manufacturing Other Services Professional, Scientific & Tech. Services Administrative & Support Services Transport, Postal and Warehousing Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing Rental, Hiring & Real Estate Services Wholesale Trade Arts and Recreation Services Financial & Insurance Services Electricity Gas Water & Waste Services Info. Media & Telecommunications Mining 17.0% 11.8% 11.6% 10.3% 7.6% 6.0% 5.8% 3.9% 3.9% 3.3% 3.3% 3.2% 2.0% 1.9% 1.8% 1.6% 1.3% 1.2% 0.2% 11.3% 6.3% 10.5% 7.8% 7.7% 6.7% 10.5% 3.7% 6.6% 3.1% 4.7% 3.1% 1.7% 4.4% 1.4% 3.8% 1.0% 1.9% 1.2% Business. At 30 June 2007 there were 2,964 businesses in the Eurobodalla Shire. Over half of these were either in Construction (23.5%), Property and Business Services (18.3%) or Retail (15.1%) industries. More than half of registered local businesses are non-employing (57.3%). Four in ten are small businesses with less than 20 employees (40.3%) while just 0.1% have 100 or more staff. Property. Sales figures from the NSW Department of Housing show that the median price paid for residential dwellings during the December 2009 quarter was $339,000. That equates to a 9.2% increase in both quarterly and annual terms. Renters paid a median of $150 per week for a one bedroom dwelling during the March 2010 quarter. Two bedroom dwellings attracted a median of $200 per week, with $260 paid for three bedroom properties and $310 for those with four or more bedrooms. These prices were unchanged from the preceding December quarter, and up slightly on the same time last year.
Value of Building Approvals ($M) $35 $30 Non-Residential Residenital $25 $20 $15 $10 $5 $- D06 J07 D07 J08 D08 J09 D09 Overall, the South Eastern area of which Eurobodalla Shire is a part faced a1.0% rental vacancy rate in April 2010. Building approvals have declined in recent years. In the year ending 30 June 2008 there were 187 dwelling applications approved with 87.2% in the private sector. The average value of private sector houses approved was $226,000, with the total value of all residential buildings approved at $49.4M. The value of non-residential building applications approved during this time totalled $17.5M. Transportation. There are three private bus services operating in the Eurobodalla, as well as two long-distance coach services and a Council run community bus. Three taxi companies service the region and there is an airport at Moruya, with Regional Express offering flights to and from Sydney and Melbourne. Education. The Eurobodalla Shire is home to 9 primary schools and 4 high schools, as well as a college catering for K-12. The University of Wollongong has a campus at the Batemans Bay Education Centre, offering full courses in Arts, Commerce, Graduate Education and Graduate Management. The Illawarra Institute of TAFE NSW also has a campus in Moruya. Half of the Eurobodalla working age population (50.6%) have some form of higher education qualification. The most prevalent are vocational qualifications such as certificates (21.3%), while 7.3% have a bachelor degree. According to the 2006 census, another 2.2% have some form of graduate qualification. Three in ten working aged residents have completed Year 12 (29.9%), while a third left school in year 10 (33.0%).
Sports & Recreation. In addition to the various waters ports available along its many beaches and lakes, there are three aquatic centres located in the Eurobodalla Local Government Area. These are at the main urban centres of Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma. Tourism. The tourism sector has become increasingly important to the Eurobodalla economy over recent decades. Eurobodalla Shire has 45 tourist accommodation establishments (five or more rooms), offering nearly 1,000 rooms. ABS figures show that there were 50,000 guest arrivals during the December quarter of 2009, occupying 88,331 guest nights. There were 43,632 room nights occupied, with guests staying an average 1.8 days. In total, accommodation alone injected $5.1M into the local economy during the three months to December 2009 and $19.9M over the entire year. The March quarter generally is the most profitable. While many come to the region for its beaches and bush hinterland, Eurobodalla is also home to many other popular tourist attractions such as Mogo Zoo, Mogo s Original Gold Rush Colony, the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens and Montague Island.