Loddon Mallee

General information

loddon-map

The Loddon Mallee Region covers north western Victoria bounded by the South Australian border to the north west; the Murray River to the north and the Macedon Ranges to the south east. The Loddon Mallee region occupies more than a quarter of Victoria and with one of the most consistently warm climates in the State - people flock to the region for the waterways of the Murray River, acclaimed restaurants and wineries, heritage towns, and grand forests. The population of the region is currently reported as 307,405.0

The Loddon Mallee region covers an area of 58,961 square kilometres (more than a quarter of the area of the State)

Municipalities

The Loddon Mallee contains nine municipalities:

Regional Ethnic Communities’ Councils/Migrant Resource Centre’s:

Diversity in the Region

The CALD population of Loddon Mallee is reasonably small– only 3 per cent of the population were born in non-English speaking countries (NESCs) and the same number speaks a LOTE at home. Italian is the only LOTE in the region with more than 1,000 speakers and is spoken by only 1 per cent of the population. Greek and Turkish follow a distant second, each spoken by 0.3 per cent of the population.

English and LOTE speakers have quite different age profiles within the Loddon Mallee region. The largest age group for English speakers is the 0–24 group, followed by the 45–64 (baby-boomer generation), 25–44 and last of all the 65 plus group. LOTE speakers are not numerous as any age but their numbers peaking in the 25–44 and 45–64 age groups (3,500 speakers each) and are otherwise around 3,100.

Language spoken at home, Loddon Mallee

Language Spoken at Home	Number	%
English	270,389	92%
LOTE	11,221	4%
Not stated	12,030	4%
TOTAL	293,640	100%

Prepared by OMAC with special tables from ABS 2006 Census (July 2011).

Country of birth, Loddon Mallee

Country of Birth	Number	%
Australia	254,004	86%
Other English speaking countries	10,848	4%
Main non-English speaking countries	8,459	3%
Other countries	3,675	1%
Not stated	16,654	6%

TOTAL	293,640	100%

Proficiency in Spoken English by Lodden Mallee Region, Victoria, 2006 Census

English Proficiency	Loddon Mallee Region
Speaks English only	270,385
Speaks another language and speaks English
Very well	6,978
Well	2,756
Not well	1,501
Not at all	314
Not stated - (both language and proficiency not stated)	11,311
Not stated - (language stated, proficiency not stated)	387
Total Persons	293,632

Disability services in the region

Of the population of people born in NESCs in LMR: 649 (or 4.6% of the total LMR disability population of 14,077) need disability-related assistance, and 2,361 (or 9.3% of the total LMR carer population of 25,477) are carers of people needing disability-related assistance.

Of the population of people who speak a language other than English (LOTE) in LMR: 724 (or 5% of the total LMR disability population of 14,077) need disability-related assistance, and 1,066 (or 4.2% of the total LMR carer population of 25,477) are carers of people needing disability-related assistance.

For the Italian and German speakers in LMR, disability correlates strongly with age (over 80% of these community members are aged 65 years and over) whereas for the Greek and Turkish populations, as with the English-speaking population, around 50% or more who need disability-related assistance are aged less than 45 years.