Populations of Tasman Peninsula

139 POPULATIONS OF TASMAN PENINSULA by L. J. Wood Department of Geography. University of Ta smania (with four tables and four text-figures) Understanding of the characteristics and dynamics of the population permanently resident in Tasman municipality has to recognise that the area receives numerically large influxes of both recreational and tourist groups. Census data suggest that the economy of the peninsula is undergoing a major shift from one reliant on traditional primary industries to one focused on tourism. At the same time, the amenities of the natural landscape have prompted a substantial in-migration of non-conventional lifestylers. Key Words: Tasman Peninsula, popUlation, counterurbanisation, alternative communities, holiday homes, tourism. From SMITH, S.J. (Ed.), 1989: IS HISTORY ENO UGH? PA ST, PRESENT AND FUTURE USE OF THE RESOURCES OF TA SMAN PE/I"NSULA . Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart: 139-148. INTRODUCTION the postwar period, with a gradual rise in numbers to the mid 1960s, followed by a decade of decline and Censuses, the main mechanism for gathering then a further increase into the 1980s (table 1; unless information about the population of an area, focus otherwise stated, all population statistics reported in attention on long-term trends in the numbers and this paper �re from ABS sources). Without specific characteristics of permanently resident populations. surveys, the reasons for these changes can only be This focus is important in that, inter alia, it provides a proxy measure of changes in the social and economic structure of a region. For Tasman Peninsula, TABLE 1 however, to focus solely on the permanent population would be to ignore other groups of people that are of Resident Population, Tasman Municipality, major importance to the economy of the region. Not 1947-91 only does the peninsula provide permanent living space for just over 1000 people, but it also has holiday Resident Absolute % change homes that give recreational accommodation for popUlation change perhaps twice that number on a less regular basis. On at census a still shorter temporal scale, the peninsula is a major date destination for tourists in Tasmania and there is a laTge daily throughput of visitors. Any examination 1947 1039 of the population geography of the peninsula must 1954 1079 +40 3.9 make reference to all three groups, since the raison 1961 1108 +29 2.6 d' etre of the permanent population rests, to an 1966 1126 +18 1.6 increasing degree, on the provision of goods, services 1971 1035 -9 1 -8.0 and labour for the other two groups. 1976 970 -65 -6.2 1981 1080 +11 0 11.3 1986* 1240 +160 14.8 THE PERMANENT POPULATION 1991* 1390 +150 12.0 Numbers and Distribution * Forecasts reported by Department of Industrial Development, Residential population fo recasts for In common with many other rural areas in the state, Tasmania 1981 -1996, Part 2: The regions. January 1984. Tasman Peninsula has had a fluctuating population in Other figures are from ABS sources. 140 LJ. Wood ,.M t. Communication Wedge Bay o One dot represents 10 people o 5 KM o FiG. 1 - Population distribution, Ta sman municipality, 1981. inferred, but they reflect fundamental changes in the sufficient to note that between 1966 and 1976, the economy of the region and some broader societal number of commercial orchards declined from 39 to trends. 13, the number of apple trees from 93 000 to 57 700 The decline in numbers over the decade from and apple production from 5156 tonnes to 2508 1966 coincided with a period of increasing financial tonnes. Production of pears, which had been important stress in many agricultural industries. On the on the peninsula, declined by a greater amount. Aided peninsula, orcharding, an industry that had formed by further incentives to withdraw from orcharding, an important and particularly labour-intensive sector the decline has continued through to the present. By of the agricultural economy was badly affected. 1984/85, the number of commercial orchards in Reasons for the downturn in orcharding, which Tasman municipality was no longer being published affected the state as a whole, are summarised else separately: there were only 37 000 apple trees and where (Wood 1982). For Tasman municipality it is production had dropped to 2443 tonnes. The absence Populations 141 of any substantial new ventures in fanning in Tasman population of 6.5% between 1971 and 1976, at a municipality and the labour-shedding nature of most time when the Tasman population as a whole was innovations in agriculture must have contributed to declining, and a further growth from 1976 to 1981. the decline in population in the decade to 1976. By any standards, however, it remains a small centre The increase in population, first evident for with only slightly over 200 people in 1981. Tasman municipality in the 1981 census, matches the Observation and local discussion suggest that trend that has become evident in most parts of the two changes may have begun to emerge in this pattern western world over recent years. Commonly termed since 1981. Firstly, there has been the development the "population turnaround", it involves rising of several small but, by local standards, significant numbers in small towns and agricultural localities concentrations of alternative lifestylers - the most reversing the previous, fairly consistent, trend of notable in the valley south of Koonya. Secondly, there population loss from such areas for a long period of has been considerable construction of permanent time. There is ongoing debate about the causes of the homes along the Eaglehawk Neckffararma road and turnaround (see for example, Hugo & Smailes 1985). along parts of White Beach. Some have attempted to link it to new communication and transportation technologies that have allowed very extensive urban commuting fields, and others to Demographic Characteristics structural changes in modernwest erneconomi es. Any satisfactory explanation almost certainly requires There is more to the study of populations than recourse to several causative factors but the most numbers and distribution and, in this section, some appealing in the context of Tasman Peninsula is that of the characteristics of the Tasman population the turnaround reflects a basic change in some including age, mobility, occupations and incomes are peoples' values and lifestyle preferences in favour of examined. It should be noted at the outset that it is rural or small town environments. There can be no commonly difficult to identify firm trends in such doubt that the physical characteristics of the peninsula, small populations. This is partly because numerically including a coastline that varies from spectacularcliffs small differences, that in themselves may reflect to sheltered beaches and extensive areas of bushland, random variations in, for example, birth rates or in addition to the widespread historical associations migration patterns, assumtj considerable apparent have made the area attractive to new settlers. As is significance when expressed in percentage terms. discussed later, these settlers have included some Figure, 2 shows the age/sex distribution for seeking an amenable environment for eventual Tasman municipality in 1976 and 1981 superimposed retirement and others who wish to pursue a non on that for the state in 1981. In 1976, the peninsula's conventional lifestyle. For both groups, the availability population showed a general under-representation of of portable social benefits in the form of pensions most cohorts below the age of 45 and an over and unemployment payments has been important. representation of older age groups. By 1981, these This, combined with relatively cheap land prices, in deviations, which are common to many rural areas, themselves a reflection of depression in the were still apparent, but growth in population over the agricultural sector, has made Tasman Peninsula an intercensal period had brought the percentage shares attractive proposition as a place for permanent of the younger cohorts closer to the state levels. At residence. the same time, however, the top heavy nature of the Figure 1 portrays the distribution of population pyramid was maintained. By 1981, some 13.9% of on the peninsula in 1981. It is readily apparent that the state population was aged over 59 compared with large areas have no permanent habitation. Indeed, 17.6% of the Tasman population. By July 1986, 130 most of the thickly forested country east ofthe Arthur Tasman residents were receiving an age pension, Highway and around Mounts Koonya and Clarke, compared to 98 at the time of the 1976 census (Hepper the exposed coastal fringe between Port Arthur Bay 1979). Almost half lived in or near Nubeena and and Wedge Bay, and the drier sandy areas in the almost half were older than 74 years (unpublished northwest of the peninsula have at best ever only data, Department of Social Security). supported a transient population. The majority of the In part, the relative absence of younger age population lives in the small centres of Taranna, Port groups reflects the paucity of local employment Arthur and Nubeena, with the rest mainly dispersed opportunities - a feature that has been enhanced by at low density along the north coast and along the the decline of the agricultural sector. Young people roads linking the north coast with Nubeena and the seeking a place in the workforce have had to move latter with Port Arthur. Of the centres, Nubeena has elsewhere. Such moves have probably been promoted become the most important, showing a growth in by the fact that most students requiring anything more 142 L.J. Wood MALES FEMALES Age Cohorts --Tasman 1976 >74 Tasm,," 198 1 70-74 ...... Tasmania HIS ! 65- 69 60-64 55-59 50--54 45-4 9 40-44 35-39 30-34 25-29 20-24 15-19 10-14 5-9 0-4 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 % of Total Popuiation FlG.

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