Check

Earlier in, ‘Place – Current and future trends’, you were asked to identify THREE trends in population movement and to give reasons for each.

Your answer could include:

an increase in the number of new schools, particularly along the north coast of NSW. This may reflect the, ‘sea change’ phenomenon, where people move to coastal areas for the lifestyle benefits.
the rise in the number of schools along the urban fringe of Sydney. This may reflect the increasing cost of housing in inner city areas and the higher availability of land on the outskirts of the city where families can build homes on their own block.

You were also asked these questions.

Although there are some significant movements of people, the general distribution of Australia’s population has not changed much since European settlement. Can you think of any reasons for this? In a hundred years time could the pattern be reversed, with few people living in the coastal zone and most of the population living in Australia’s arid centre?

Your answer could include:

climatic factors such as the lack of reliable rainfall in central Australia
topographic factors such as the steep terrain of the Great Dividing Range.

Think about possible changes or influences that would be needed to bring about such a change.

Your answer could include:

climate change such as coastal areas disappearing under rising seas, intensification of natural hazards such as cyclones
improvements in technology such as high speed transport enabling people to live far away from their places of work
environmental stress arising from pollution in cities causing people to leave heavily populated areas
new resource development around which new communities are formed in outback areas, e.g. mining, solar power generation.