"Despite the fact that indigenous Australians are known to be frequently mobile over the short term, statistical information regarding this population movement is grossly deficient.... This paper examines various means by which short-term population movement can be quantified to yield aggregate indicators of demographic impact. First, census data are used to establish the rate and pattern of inter-regional, short-term displacement. This reveals regional urban centres as net recipients of temporary residents while most rural areas experience temporary absenteeism. Secondly, results from household surveys are reported stressing the importance of including visitors to households in the estimation of service populations. Thirdly, administrative data on occupancy in urban hostels are used to derive indicators of the duration of movement."

"I focus on urban environments and on immigration as that segment of population growth often viewed as having certain effects on cities. The paper argues for a reframing of narratives linking population and urban environments, so that both immigrant-led population growth and the condition of urban environments in Australia can be understood as the product of the political and economic interpretations being made of the nation's internationalisation, which in turn has consequences for diversity amongst places and peoples."

"The study seeks first to ascertain whether the age profile of net migration [in coastal New South Wales, Australia] varied during the period 1976-91.... The second aim is to determine whether or not the impact of net migration on population growth remained constant throughout the period 1976-91. Thirdly, the study seeks to ascertain whether or not socio-economic change during the period can be shown to be indicative of areal variations in advantage and disadvantage. Fourthly, it seeks to determine whether there is any association between age-specific net migration and family composition and, if so, to determine whether this association may be indicative of areal variation in development. Fifthly, classifications of the socio-economic characteristics of the population are undertaken...."

"The separation of environmental and population issues globally is reflected in the fact that the setting of international agendas to tackle them was for all intents and purposes undertaken at separate international meetings--the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the International Population Conference in Cairo in 1994. This paper presents an overview of Australia's international involvement in population issues and suggests that until recently Australia had played a minor political role in international population initiatives primarily, and perhaps ironically, because it has been a world leader in demographic research and teaching for several decades."

"The aim of this paper is to utilise recently released census results to examine patterns of population change in non-metropolitan Australia during the 1986-91 period, focusing particularly upon the net migration component of that change. The paper presents an overview of recent trends in population change in non-metropolitan areas and then moves to an analysis of net migration patterns in non-metropolitan local government areas during the late 1980s using a Life Table Survival Ratio technique to estimate net migration. It appears that the trends observed in the early 1980s have continued into the late 1980s and early 1990s, and that overall the 'turnaround' is slowing down and becoming more diversified, more complex, and much less predictable in the 1990s."

The implications of the Gulf War are assessed for the countries in Asia that send labor migrants to the Middle East. "This paper seeks to examine the effects of...the loss of remittances (and related issues, including return migration), primarily in terms of the long-term implications of the War for the future of contract labour migration in the Asian region...."

A common theme in the writings of population geographers with a fertility interest has been a concern with the convergence of interregional fertility differentials. It is now clear, however, that the widespread achievement in western societies of below-replacement fertility has resulted in a dramatic diminution of most forms of differential fertility, whether sectoral or spatial. The question of "what remains for the spatial analyst working in the traditional ecological mode?" must therefore be asked. An analysis of small-area fertility differentials in NSW in 1986 suggests (a) that most of the variability in local marital and total fertility is not statistically significant, and (b) that even if this problem is ignored, traditional ecological analysis has only trivial 'explanatory' power. While complete spatial uniformity is unlikely ever to be achieved, it is argued that the intrasocietal convergence of reproductive norms and behavior has proceeded so far that conventional geographic approaches to the analysis of fertility are unlikely any longer to be, if they ever were, fruitful

"The paper reports the use of Australian Resources Information System to calculate two proximate populations (people living within (i) 150 and (ii) 500 km) for the centroids of each of 3,000 half by half degree geodetic grid cells covering Australia. The use of proximate population data is exemplified by computing a map of the eighteen regions collectively containing a maximum fraction of the Australian population." The data used are from the 1981 census.

"Despite an outpouring of ecological work by geographers and others over the past fifteen years, interest in the ecologies of rural areas has been low and firm generalizations about, for example, variations in social and demographic characteristics within rural regions have been slow to emerge. The objective of this paper is to discern the extent to which variations in demographic structures and processes within rural areas are patterned according to the nature of the agricultural economy. Some significant associations between age-sex structure and measures of agricultural intensity and type of farming are discerned for the New South Wales case, but the patterning is complex and owes much to differentiating forces not examined here."

"In much geographical research on the elderly the older population is treated as a single age bloc. Data from Sydney [Australia] are used to illustrate how this collective approach can bury significant spatially varying characteristics of age subgroups within the elderly population. Analysis of these subgroup variations is essential for effective targeting of services and programmes for the aged."

"This paper examines national immigration processes and demographic change in South Australia and Tasmania over the last four decades. Particular attention is paid to the inter-censal period 1986-1991.... The paper investigates the impact of the historic make-up of immigrant flows on settlement patterns, and examines the impact on policies intended to increase immigrant settlement in these states. It argues that the policies being pursued by state and federal governments are unlikely to add to the numbers settling in these states, because they pay too little attention to migration processes, and especially the attraction of others from the source country."