Australia Yearbook - 2001

738 Year Book Australia 2001
The Australian housing stock: 1911 and 1996
(Anthony King, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute)
The past 100 years have seen a massive increase
in the Australian housing stock. In the period
from 1911 to 1996 there was a fourfold increase
in the Australian population—from 4.5 million
to 17.9 million. The housing stock did not just
keep up with this rapid rate of population
increase; it increased at almost double the rate.
From just under a million dwellings in 1911, the
Australian housing stock had grown to over
7 million dwellings by 1996. The outcome has
been a marked decline in the average number
of occupants of each dwelling—from around
4.5 in 1911 to around 2.5 by 1996.
There have also been changes in the structure
of the Australian housing stock. While the great
majority of the population has been housed in
private dwellings throughout the period, the
proportion has increased—from 91% in 1911
to 97% by 1996—with a corresponding decline
in the share of the population living in
‘non-private’ dwellings. In 1911, 8% of the
population lived in non-private dwellings, most
notably boarding houses and hotels. The
corresponding proportion for 1996 was just
over 3%, and now the most prevalent forms of
living in non-private dwellings are homes for
the aged and educational institutions. A further
feature has been a considerable increase in the
unoccupied share of the housing stock—from
almost 4% in 1911 to over 9% by 1996. This
reflects the shift from a period of housing
shortage to one of housing affluence, with many
of the 680,000 unoccupied dwellings identified
at the 1996 Census being second or holiday
homes.
The quality of the housing stock has improved
markedly. The average size of dwellings has
increased; coupled with the increase in the
number of dwellings mentioned above, this has
given rise to far more dwelling space per person
now than 100 years ago. We can directly
compare information on dwelling construction
materials over the period. Timber or brick
constituted the main material of the outer walls
of 80% of private dwellings in both 1911 and
1994, though the balance between the two has
been reversed (see graph 20.14). Most dwellings
in 1911 had wooden walls, while today
two-thirds have more solid and durable brick
walls. After timber and brick, the next most
common materials in 1911 were stone, ‘calico,
canvas and hessian’, and iron. In 1994 timber
and brick were followed by fibro cement and
concrete.
%
80
20.14 OCCUPIED PRIVATE DWELLINGS, Main Materials of Outer Walls—
1911 and 1994
1911
1994
60
40
20
0
Wood Brick Other
Source: Census of the Commonwealth of Australia 1911; Australian Housing Survey 1994 (4181.0).