Gold Coast’s seductive lifestyle underpins the rise of extreme commuting

First the Gold Coast tantalised us with the idea of a retirement lifestyle by the beach.

Then it delivered the idea of a ‘seachange’ lifestyle where a lucky few either lived permanently, or had a beach house, ‘down the coast’.

But now the latest trend coming out of the Gold Coast is the idea of “extreme commuting” to Brisbane, to Sydney and to the Bowen Basin.

This is revealed in a study released today by KPMG demographer Bernard Salt showing the lengths some people will go to retain their Gold Coast lifestyle.

It shows loyal Gold Coasters are prepared to work in these far-flung places - they just don’t want to live there!

“Whatever it is that the Gold Coast has to offer must be pretty good because extreme commuters are growing faster in this city than in any of the 10 largest cities in Australia,” Salt says.

“Australians have long demonstrated their preference for a beach lifestyle which is why the Gold Coast is the nation’s sixth largest city.

“But what has become evident from the 2011 Census is that, once they get a taste of the Gold Coast lifestyle, they simply don’t want to leave.’’

Salt says Coasters are the biggest inter-city commuters in Australia with 26,000 workers commuting each day to Brisbane, easily outpacing second-placed Wollongong with 17,000 daily commuters to Sydney.

But the “extreme commuting” trend goes further, Salt says.

Over the five years to 2011 the number of long distance commuters in Australia jumped 37% to 214,000 (a long distance commuter is defined as someone who travels more than 100 kilometres to work).

However, the number of long distance commuters living on the Gold Coast jumped 92% to 6700 over this period.

Other long distance commuters include an estimated 13,800 in Brisbane, 14,300 in Melbourne, 16,500 in Sydney and 24,800 in Perth. These people largely comprise fly-in fly-out (or FIFO) workers in the mining industry.

Salt points out that the Gold Coast has about half the population of Adelaide - about 577,000 residents versus 1.2 million – but its long-distance-commuter population is more or less the same: 6700 on the Gold Coast and 6800 in Adelaide.

The difference is that Adelaide’s mining industry FIFO workers can fly in and out of Adelaide airport, while the Gold Coast’s FIFOs must first commute to Brisbane airport - even though they have a perfectly good airport in their own backyard.

Salt says the Gold Coast FIFO workforce is ‘’the cream to the Brisbane airport’s FIFO success’’.

The study found the most popular long distance commutes from the Gold Coast in 2011 were to Sydney (980 workers) and the Bowen Basin (540 workers).

Long distance commuters are also present in other non-capital cities such as the Sunshine Coast (4100), Newcastle (5500) and Mackay (3800).

Salt believes the Gold Coast ‘’punches above its weight in the long-distance-commuter stakes no doubt because of this city’s unique lifestyle appeal’’.