Migration to Exmouth jumps, causing headaches for worker accommodation

Exmouth is increasingly becoming a preferred destination for those moving town, with 2022 seeing one of the largest jumps in the country in the number of new arrivals calling the Gascoyne town home. This influx of migrants has put pressure on the town’s housing market, according to one commercial leader, who said businesses were struggling to find accommodation for their workers. According to data from the Regional Australia Institute, Exmouth saw the 19th largest increase in total net migration among regional local government areas (LGAs) in 2022, with a swing of 65 per cent. Exmouth is the only WA LGA north of Perth to make the list of Australia’s 45 regional areas with largest increases in migration, which also includes Dardanup, with a 151 per cent increase, Albany with a 131 per cent rise, Donnybrook-Balingup (63 per cent), Toodyay (51 per cent), Chittering (31 per cent), Denmark (24 per cent) and Busselton (19 per cent). Exmouth Chamber of Commerce president David Gillespie said the influx of new arrivals had increased competition in properties, in turn making it more difficult for businesses to house their workers. Mr Gillespie said that while a growing population did mean more potential hires to pick and chose from, for most businesses the lack of housing was limiting their ability to grow. “It’s becoming quite serious, we’ve just had a business call us to say they can’t expand as they would like to, because workers they have with accommodation are being head-hunted, and bringing in new employees is very, very hard.” Mr Gillespie said that without more housing being built, he expected the issue to continue. “I believe it’s going to be a long term situation, Exmouth is continuing to grow, and it’s certainly going to put continuous pressure on the rental market,” he said. “We haven’t got any further land being developed to increase housing, because we’re sort of closed off, which makes it difficult to get those projects going without State Government support.”