Victorian mayor ‘deflated’ by census results

A deflated Victorian mayor fears that the census results for her small Murray River town may affect the availability of services in the community.

In the 2021 census, Robinvale's population rose to 3,740, a moderate rise from the 3,313 recorded in 2016.

The town's real population may be closer to 8,000, according to an independent study funded by Swan Hill Rural Council council that looked at water consumption and anonymised bank and supermarket transactions.

Jack Dang from Robinvale Network and Neighbourhood House helped raise awareness ahead of the last year's census, in order to better reflect the region's population in the Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

He said it was hard to get accurate information in a region with a large multi-ethnic and seasonal worker population.

He said that a lot of people didn't realize that this is not an immigration headcount.

People think it is for immigration and say, I won't put my hand up, because a lot of people here are undocumented.

According to ABS data, Robinvale's population has decreased in every census since 2006.

Swan Hill Mayor Jade Benham said it had a significant impact on the area.

She said that banks, Mallee Family Care, TAFE, MADEC, Haven Home Safe, all of these services pulled out of Robinvale at a rate of knots because of an alleged decrease in population.

Emergency services are under-resourced because of it.

We don't have a 24 hour police station.

For a town with 8,000 people, that is a matter of public safety.

Government agencies and bureaucracies don't listen to ABS data. Ms Benham said that the timing of the census in August 2021 during a lock down and a quiet period for seasonal workers may have contributed to the disappointing results.

She said she was expecting closer to 5,000.

It just goes up that fraction that you kind of feel like a deflated balloon.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics was contacted for comment.

Dang said that the small increase in the population data was a step in the right direction.

He said holding meetings with community members and relaying information in different languages was effective.

I'm going to take it as a win - any rise is a win, he said.

We'll be more proactive next time.

We only started hammering it around three months before, this time, so it's going to take a few more censuses before we get it right.