Eighty-five per cent of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the coast, yet some of the country’s most productive regions have almost no permanent population. This video explores the gap between those two realities and what it reveals about how Australia really works.
It examines why cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth have become so unaffordable, and why relatively few people move inland in search of cheaper land. It looks at coastal migration, FIFO mining work and the remote camps that support the Pilbara, before travelling through the outback to communities such as William Creek. Along the way, it considers family life, the School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctor Service, ultimately asking what it means for Australia to depend so heavily on places most people never see.
