Ballarat's leaders have backed new calls for a national awareness campaign to promote the opportunities of living in regional Australia and help drive a population shift in coming decades.
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The Regional Institute of Australia released its report Regional Population Growth - Are We Ready? on Wednesday promoting alternative population growth scenarios that could ease pressures on capital cities and give regional areas an economic boost.
Ballarat is included in the report with a presentation of three potential scenarios; business as usual with growth concentrated in Melbourne, concentrated regional growth with growth diverted from Melbourne to Geelong, Ballarat, Latrobe and Bendigo, and dispersed regional growth with growth dispersed to both proximate and more distant regional cities like Horsham.
Scenarios with regional growth are shown to divert up to 2.1 million potential future residents away from Greater Melbourne.
The report predicts if 20 to 40 per cent of population growth was diverted from Melbourne to the regions, Ballarat and other regional cities could grow by an annual rate of 4 per cent, reaching around 500,000 people by 2056.
This is significantly higher than the 1.2 per cent growth rate for Ballarat to 2056 detailed in the state government's Victoria in Future report released last month.
The city's leaders say while a 4 per cent growth rate is unlikely, it was important to implement strategic planning to build capacity for redistributed population growth.
READ MORE: Growth can be good, say Ballarat leaders
"In Ballarat we need to be excited about the possibility of regional growth, we need to plan really well for it and build our capacity for it," Committee for Ballarat CEO Michael Poulton told The Courier while at the launch of the report in Melbourne.
"Committee for Ballarat will continue to focus on the four key areas of liveability, education and health, jobs and training, and connectivity. Those four pillars drive the work we do, collaboration with our members and with City of Ballarat.
"It will take a collaborative effort to make things happen."
Committee for Ballarat board member and liveability project team chair Bridget Aitchison said Ballarat's approach to growth needed to be proactive.
"What we don't want to do is reactively scramble to create infrastructure and amenities after the growth has already happened," she said.
The regional population growth report recommends the development of regional settlement strategies for each major city and surrounding regions and the elevation of migration strategies for regional Australia.
The report also outlines the need for land use planning, effective job creation in suburbs, investments to improve connectivity, the creation of diverse housing and promotion of liveability initiatives to facilitate a change in settlement patterns.
City of Ballarat mayor Samantha McIntosh, who is also the Regional Capitals Australia chair, said in a statement council had been planning population growth in Ballarat for years.
"We are not only ready to grow - we are growing - and we look forward to working with both the federal and state governments to ease the squeeze on the major capitals," she said.
The Regional Australia Institute also launched its new tool MOVE shows that shows which areas in Australia pay off their mortgage faster.
It shows the average number of years to pay off a house in Ballarat is 22, compared to 55 years in Melbourne.
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Rochelle Kirkham
Rochelle covers court and has a particular interest in social issues including homelessness, food security and family violence.
Rochelle covers court and has a particular interest in social issues including homelessness, food security and family violence.
