By Claire Ottaviano and Craig Butt
What do carpenters, geologists, secondary teachers and fitness instructors have in common? More of them prefer to live in Scarborough than any other suburb in WA, according to new census data revealing where certain professions call home.
Similarly, Baldivis is home to the most sales assistants (832 of them), aged/disabled carers (335), truck drivers (323), primary school teachers (231), checkout operators (169), police officers (159) and hairdressers (115).
Scarborough is a tranquil haven for FIFO worker and geologist Bruno Pereira, pictured with a sample of lithium bearing rock from the Pilbara Credit: Claire Ottaviano
This in-depth look into occupational statistics has been made available for the first time thanks to a change in the way census information is recorded.
For Brazilian immigrants Bruno Pereira and Graciany da Silva, finding out they are two of 98 geologists living in Scarborough was no surprise, with many of their geologist colleagues, as well as Brazilian nationals, flocking to the suburb for its colourful beachside festivals and community.
“When we came [to Perth] we had a friend, who is Brazilian and a geologist as well, who lived here,” he said.
“We lived there for a while and then we moved to Northbridge and then to Victoria Park but decided that we needed to come back to Scarborough to get closer to the sea.
“We have a lot of friends from Brazil who live here, actually, some people call it ‘Scar-Brazil’.
Pereira, who is a FIFO worker, and partner da Silva, who commutes to the city, said the suburb offered a certain peace and tranquillity for those with busy professional lives.
“I really like to stay home when I’m on my break, but ‘home’ means in the neighbourhood,” he said.
“I live two blocks from the beach, so I like to go for a walk sometimes to see the ocean, to hear the ocean.”
What is the most common suburb of residence for your job? To find out, type it into the box below and follow the prompt to our visual story. It starts out by taking you through the typical earnings for your occupation, before showing you how many people do the same job as you in your suburb, as well as the suburb that comes out on the top of the list for your profession. Give it a shot:
Some job clusters appear obvious for proximity reasons – most horse trainers and jockeys live in Ascot, winemakers in Margaret River and miners in Newman – while others can be explained by socioeconomic status, such as anaesthetists in Nedlands and plastic surgeons in Cottesloe.
But University of Western Australia social demographer Amanda Davies said not all clusters were obvious, due to Perth’s unique identity, economy and dispersed population.
“Something in the data that’s very much a Perth-y-type thing is that, as big as Perth has got, it is somewhat important ‘who you know’ when you’re seeking work in certain occupations,” she said.
“Friends and family hook people up into different types of occupations and so you see other clusters that can be perhaps explained by those social networks or family networks, where people move into a particular occupation because their family happens to own business in that area.
“The ‘Perth network’ is still very important.”
On the whole, Perth was very much rooted in its community-driven identity, she said, with people tending to stay in their homes through career changes, aided by the expansion of Perth’s rail system into the outer suburbs allowing people to work further from where they live.
“We very much are a population of people who stay in our homes for a long period of time,” Davies said.
“We get involved in suburbs, in our local community and sporting clubs. It is actually something that’s very significant to the way we operate in Perth.”
Baldivis, a largely working-class and family-oriented suburb with a wide socioeconomic range, reflected a diversity of the workforce (as detailed above), said Davies, whereas Bayswater was transitioning from working class to a hub for creatives with the most graphic designers (34) and musicians (15).
“Comparing ourselves to some of the other bigger cities is that we are much newer,” she said.
“We’re still developing suburbs, we’re still expanding... so you are seeing that change occurring in real time and that’s probably part of why you’re getting anomalies throwing the data, as well as some clear trends developing.”
See which suburb is home to the most people who do certain jobs in the list below:
Alkimos: debt collectors (12)
Ascot: horse trainers (16) and jockeys (8)
Baldivis: sales assistants (832), aged/disabled carers (335), truck drivers (323), primary school teachers (231), checkout operators (169), police officers (159) and hairdressers (115)
Canning Vale: accountants (307), mechanical engineers (91), bus drivers (77), cooks (63), taxi drivers (51) and boarding kennel/cattery operators (21)
Cottelsloe: CEOs (152), land economists (28), stockbroking dealers (24) and plastic surgeons (9)
Nedlands: GPs (147), university lecturers (98), dentists (54), anaesthetists (38) and economists (14)
Perth CBD: chefs (226), waiters (204), cafe or restaurant managers (111), bar attendants (89), barista (80) as well as print journalists (10), actors (9) and radio presenters (8).
Scarborough: Secondary school teachers (194), carpenters (106), geologists (96), fitness instructors (92) and footballers (11)
Balcatta: Drainage, sewerage and stormwater labourers (10) and make-up artists (8)
Balga: Service station attendants (30)
Ballajura: Beauty therapists (89) and dressmakers/tailors (18)
Bayswater: Graphic designers (34) and musicians (15)
Claremont: interior designers (27), nannies (22), landscape architects (10) and judges (7)
Como: Speech pathologists (20), lifeguards (8), statisticians (8) and physicists (7)
Crawley: University tutors (26)
Dianella: Florists (17 and drycleaners (10)
Duncraig: School principals (32)
Fremantle: Architects (47) and authors (10)
Gosnells: Forklift drivers (147), road traffic controllers (40) and furniture removalists (18)
Harvey: Meat boner/slicers (77), meat packets (52) and slaughterers (28)
Katanning: Meat process workers (91), shearers (22) and wool handlers (11)
Margaret River: Vineyard workers (120), wine makers (53) and grape growers (40), hotel or motel managers (28)
Mount Lawley: Barristers (24)
Newman: Miners (364)
South Hedland: Train drivers (80) and railway track workers (59)
Subiaco: Solicitors (173) and psychiatrists (18)
Wembley: Commercial cleaners (238)
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