Psst, baby boomers: meet the new seachangers

Editor's note

Once seen as being driven mainly by retirees, migration out of of our biggest cities to less crowded coastal regions is now being led by younger Australians. A study of just who is moving to the top seachange destinations – places like the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Geelong and Tasmania – shows the ages between 20 and 35 make up the biggest groups of new arrivals.

John Watson

Section Editor: Cities + Policy

Top story

Many younger seachangers are moving to less populated places like Carlton Beach, Tasmania. Author's Photo

Meet the new seachangers: now it’s younger Australians moving out of the big cities

Lisa Denny, University of Tasmania; Felicity Picken, Western Sydney University; Nick Osbaldiston, James Cook University

Once seen as being driven mainly by retirees, migration out of of our biggest cities to less crowded coastal regions is now being led by younger Australians.

Cities
Reimagining Sydney: this is what needs to be done to make a Central City CBD work Tooran Alizadeh, University of Sydney Central City 2048 proposes one new rail line, three metro lines and almost 300,000 extra jobs for the new CBD, one of three proposed for metropolitan Sydney. Clearly, the investment needed is massive.

Business + Economy

Bringing in backpackers is not the right way to get more workers onto farms

Stephen Howes, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Making it easier for holidaying backpackers to work on Australian farms will make it harder for Pacific Islanders, and increase exploitation on farms.
Please don’t dismiss the PC inquiry into mental health as ‘just another inquiry’

Allan Fels, University of Melbourne

The strength of the Productivity Commission inquiry is that it will use an economic rather than a purely health lens.

Politics + Society

The Morrison government’s biggest economic problem? Climate change denial

Judith Brett, La Trobe University

The federal government's the stubborn commitment to coal is pulling the government’s economic policy towards the sort of state socialism it is supposed to abhor.
Australia’s naval upgrade may not be enough to keep pace in a fast-changing region

Chris Barrie, Australian National University

Compared to China's naval ambitions, we seem slow-moving and complacent and lack the agility to keep up with the times.

Curious Kids

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Amanda Devine, Edith Cowan University

Just like a mobile phone, your body needs to be recharged every day. You need to eat food and drink water every day to keep your body going. Some foods are better than others at helping you stay well.
Curious Kids: why do some dogs get ‘snow nose’ in winter?

Aaron Herndon, The University of Queensland

Dog skin is exactly the same as yours and mine! It changes colour depending on how much light it's exposed to.

Science + Technology

Under the hammer: artwork by an algorithm is up for auction, so does that mean AI is now creative?

Sven Brodmerkel, Bond University

It might look like an unfinished piece but it's the work of artificial intelligence, the first artwork of its kind to be sold at auction.
Why R2D2 could be your child’s teacher sooner than you think

Kristyn Sommer, The University of Queensland; Marie Bodén, The University of Queensland

Robots in the classroom are highly engaging and motivating for students, and can have a cascading effect on learning across an entire school.

Environment + Energy
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Arts + Culture

Friday essay: family as ‘brand’ – the rise of the digital mumpreneur

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A growing number of parents are making money out of their children by turning them into social media celebrities. But the chimera of corporate branding is no antidote for lives lived in precarious times.
The resonances between Indigenous art and images captured by microscopes

Roger Wepf, The University of Queensland

A new exhibition pairs paintings by Indigenous Australian artists with microscopic images captured by scientists. The parallels, as this gallery of pictures shows, are intriguing.

Health + Medicine

Boyer Lectures: gene therapy is still in its infancy but the future looks promising

Merlin Crossley, UNSW

Once genetic lesions for diseases such as cystic fibrosis and haemophilia were identified, the idea of replacing or correcting defective genes grew into what we now call "gene therapy".
More than a habit? When to worry about nail biting, skin picking and other body-focused repetitive behaviours

Imogen Rehm, RMIT University; Judith Stevenson, University of Glasgow

Body-focused repetitive behaviours are related to obsessive compulsive disorder. You can stop the picking, pulling and biting.

Education
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