Inside the work commute dilemma facing those in Melbourne's outer suburbs

Research has found generations of Melbourians moving to the outer suburbs have access to fewer jobs within a 30 miniute drive.

Transcript

00:00 East Pakenham is right on Melbourne's south east fringe.

00:06 It's a great place to live out here and I can't wait until they put housing across the

00:10 road.

00:11 That's a joke.

00:12 I prefer the cows and the kangaroos.

00:13 Travis Meether is working from home today but when he goes into his CBD office it takes

00:18 him nearly two and a half hours a day in the car.

00:22 To make the money I do I need to go into the city.

00:24 That's backed up by a report that's found residents in Melbourne's newest suburbs have

00:29 access to fewer nearby jobs than they used to.

00:33 In 1996 Lynbrook was on Melbourne's fringe and nearly 400,000 jobs were accessible within

00:40 a half hour drive.

00:41 In 2011 the fringe was Officer.

00:44 Locals there had access to nearly 300,000 jobs.

00:48 Now if you live in East Pakenham just 130,000 jobs are accessible within a half hour drive.

00:55 The number of jobs is also a proxy for your access to services whether they're in health,

01:01 in education, in retail or recreation.

01:05 Fewer local jobs means either a long commute or working closer to home in a lower paid

01:10 job.

01:11 The report found more than 45% of workers in Melbourne's outer west, the outer north

01:17 and the outer south east are overqualified for the jobs they're holding.

01:21 I think governments should also start to think about moving their own employment into suburban

01:28 nodes.

01:29 Increasing local jobs is a key issue for outer suburbs councils.

01:33 I like to refer to Kardinia Shire as a bed and breakfast because people will come home,

01:38 go to bed, get up in the morning, eat their breakfast and head back off into the city

01:42 to work.

01:43 The state government plans to put more new homes in established suburbs rather than on

01:48 the urban fringes.

01:49 But even with that change of focus there will still be about a million people coming to

01:53 live in growth zones like this one by 2056.

01:57 There will be plenty of jobs in construction.

01:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]