Liveability, Connectivity, and Scenius: Broken Hill as a Case Study for Reduced Population Churn

The paper identifies three variables shaped by urban planning and local government that influence migration drivers, contributing to population stability, lower churn and turnover, and in some cases, growth in Australia’s regional cities. Based on a detailed study of Broken Hill, NSW, it offers policy advice for enhancing place-based factors leading to population attraction and stability in non-metropolitan Australia. The most important factors are theorised as liveability, connectivity, and scenius. Liveability denotes the quality of life attainable in an urban area supported by services such as early learning and health services. Connectivity indicates the ease with which residents can access other areas, for example by air travel or now through digital connectivity, and “scenius”, which refers to the vitality, enjoyment, and celebration of unique qualities of a place, which can be measured by qualitative features such as creative engagement with unique and natural features of places and communities. While this concept has similarities to local amenity, a recognised measure of population attraction, its aspects of engagement, attachment, and interaction between human and more-than-human participants make scenius a better measure of drivers of population stability. The paper explains these categories, and how they are thought to contribute to reducing population churn.