Corangamite Shire mayor Jo Beard said encouraging population growth was a major focus of the council, but also called for a definitive strategy from the state government.

“We can’t continue to decline or even stay stagnant in some of our towns for the coming years,” she said.

“We can’t keep sitting back seeing the likes of Melbourne continuing to bust at its seams while we’re standing here with open arms saying ‘come and live here’.”

Australian Bureau of Statistics mapping of Corangamite Shire’s population from 2001 to 2016 shows population has dropped from 17,293 to 15,735.

In comparison, the population grew in Warrnambool and Moyne councils over the same period and remained stable in Southern Grampians. Glenelg Shire’s population dipped by less than 1000 people.

“Whilst there is funding available for regional councils through the Stronger Regional Communities Plan and the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund, I feel there is more that can be done at a state level to meet the challenge of population growth in rural and regional Victoria,” Cr Beard said.

“We as a shire, and now the Rural Councils Victoria group, are advocating to the state government that we need a clear and definitive strategy to address population decline in rural regions and that the major growth rate in metropolitan areas cannot be sustainable.”

Cr Beard said rural and regional councils were likely to continue to experience minimal or no population growth.

“We as leaders within our region cannot continue to just sit back and watch this happen,” she said.

“Melbourne is rapidly growing, their infrastructure is not capable of handling the growth and yet rural councils are pleading for population growth and have the infrastructure and communities to accommodate future growth – it’s a no brainer.”

Cr Beard said she was keen to continue the discussion on how to support population growth.

“It’s important that we not only support new residents, but it’s about facilitating growth and generation of new businesses within our towns that will then help support population,” she said.

“It’s really important that we continue to facilitate that discussion about how we can drive population growth here in Corangamite.”