Across regional Australia, there’s a growing feeling of being overlooked, misunderstood and left behind by the millions of Aussies who live in the capital cities.
Now, that frustration seems to be spilling over, with a mounting pushback from regional communities.
Australia’s alarming – and ever-increasing – rural-urban divide was thrust under the national spotlight last month when the sprawling regional NSW electorate of Farrer elected One Nation candidate David Farley, ending the Coalition’s 77-year stranglehold in the Riverina area.
He won in a landslide, taking more than 57 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote after a campaign focused heavily on water, agriculture and regional frustration.
The result took many city dwellers by surprise and made headlines across the nation, with polls indicating support for One Nation is now surging in other pockets of regional Australia as well.
Earlier this year, news.com.au visited the Hunter Region in NSW after voters swung hard towards One Nation there also, turning the Labor stronghold – held since 1910 – into a marginal seat.
Hunter residents described myriad frustrations which had pushed them towards Pauline Hanson’s party, including a housing crisis, high crime rates and poor government policy.
And after news.com.au also visited the regional NSW city of Griffith last month – which played a key role in Mr Farley’s win – it soon became clear that One Nation’s historic victory may be a new symptom of a broken system that has been festering for decades.
Australia’s devastating divide
In Griffith, dozens of residents described a dire rural-urban divide that had left them feeling “neglected” by the nation as they grappled with unique problems such as a suicide and mental health crisis, a terrifying lack of access to wider healthcare, cost of living pressures and panic over water security.
Over the course of dozens of conversations with locals, a clear sentiment emerged: regional Aussies feel their voices carry very little weight in the national debate – whether it’s decisions made in the halls of Canberra, or simply how city folk perceive them and their challenges.
Water security was one of the first issues raised, with many farmers now forced to re-evaluate the only life they’ve ever known as they struggle to deliver their crops and feed their livestock.
In a region tied so closely to irrigation and river systems, many spoke about uncertainty around water supply, ineffective government policy and the pressure of making long-term decisions in an unpredictable environment.
Health care is another issue battering the town and wider region, with those in need often experiencing gruelling wait times and very little access to specialists.
Despite having recently opened the new $250 million Griffith Base Hospital – which supposedly delivers “state of the art facilities and enhanced regional health services” – locals say they still have to drive hours to larger towns to access the most basic medical attention.
Mental health was also at the forefront of conversations, as many admitted there would not be “one person in the town who hasn’t been touched by suicide”.
It’s a similar story: the waiting list for psychiatric appointments is months-long, and there is little to no follow up on a person’s mental state once they exit the system.
Damning stats prove system is broken
The same urgent concerns came up again and again during news.com.au’s visit to Griffith – and a series of damning statistics prove these struggles are all too real.
Almost 30 per cent of the population – around 7 million Australians – live in rural and remote areas, and according to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, they face significantly worse health outcomes than their city counterparts, with higher rates of hospitalisations, deaths and injury and also poorer access to primary health care services.
Rural Australia also experiences higher rates of poverty, and greater disadvantage linked to fewer educational and employment opportunities.
Across the country, one farmer dies by suicide every 10 days, while almost half of all farmers (45 per cent) had experienced thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
In the broader Murrumbidgee area, in which Griffith is located, over 15 per cent of adults experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress, with mental health conditions also more prevalent than across NSW as a whole.
On top of that, Murrumbidgee has the highest rates of suicide in NSW, experiencing an average of 43 deaths from suicide each year.
In 2023, Griffith experienced a spate of youth suicides, which locals say left the community “devastated”.
But despite these alarming statistics, the town’s new hospital does not feature a designated mental health care unit, instead offering only telehealth appointments with little to no follow-up conversations.
Additionally, there are currently no acting psychiatrists in the town, and no pediatrician.
One expectant mother said she had repeatedly been travelling over two hours to Wagga Wagga just to access basic scans during her pregnancy.
Independent Murray state MP Helen Dalton said the hospital was a “ghost town” that was struggling to employ staff due to the challenges of living in the region.
And then there’s the issue of water buybacks – a controversial government scheme where authorities purchase permanent water entitlements directly from farmers and irrigators.
Griffith mayor Doug Curran said even one farmer selling their water entitlements had a damaging knock-on effect to the wider town.
“There’s a cost to get the water along that channel system, and if you remove one or two or three, the cost is still the same, so the other farmers have to bear that increased cost, which potentially makes them a willing seller,” he said.
‘We feel invisible’
The struggles of this town, and regional Australia more broadly, are many. But at the crux of it are a people that just want to be heard.
“I worry people are getting tired and underappreciated,” said Cr Curran.
“We were heartened by the amount of attention we got from the Farrer by-election, we don’t get a great deal of attention.
“It’s a real slap in the face, we feel invisible. We’re happy to explain our point of view and put forward ideas, but we don’t even feel we’ve been given that opportunity.”
Mrs Dalton echoed those sentiments, saying rural areas have “had a gutful” of being ignored.
“We are very passive people and we take a lot, but we deserve a piece,” she said.
“I’m tired of people saying water’s not my business. If you eat food and you wear cotton and wool, you should be interested.”
Griffith local Brian* told news.com.au the urban-rural divide had now become “so vast”.
“If you’ve not lived in an area like this, you don’t generally understand it well enough,” he said.
“I think people are feeling neglected. [Cities] don’t understand [the] challenges faced by people out here and the state is completely broken.
“If it’s west of the Blue Mountains, people don’t care.”
Brian suggested city-siders spend time in rural areas in an effort to bridge the divide.
“If you grew up in the city, you should have to have compulsory residence in a regional area for a period of six months in your twenties,” he said.
Meanwhile, Griffith tradie Milton, 19, said he also felt “very snubbed” by those in the capitals.
“They say it’s easy to live in the heart of Australia but everyone in the city gets lower prices and we foot the bill every time,” he said.
City residents miss the mark
In an effort to gain the perspectives of both groups, news.com.au recently took to the streets of inner Sydney to ask about some of the biggest struggles facing the nation, and their thoughts on the rise of One Nation in the regions.
But while Sydneysiders were compassionate about the struggles facing their rural counterparts, they largely missed the mark.
It was evident that while their hearts may be in the right place, many city folk struggle to truly grasp the very real challenges of rural Australia.
Most city residents will never understand what it feels like to sign away the rights to a generations-old family farm because you simply can’t afford to keep it running.
They will probably never have to watch their children move across the country to pursue basic opportunities that just aren’t available at home.
And they will likely never have to learn what it’s like to watch loved ones suffer from a lack of physical or mental health services, or face the prospect of running out of water.
Meanwhile, Sydney resident John said he felt people from the country had a gripe with city dwellers.
When asked what first came to mind about regional Australia, John, who previously lived in Parkes, said: “It’s boring. There’s too much bush, it’s too country, there’s not enough shops and everything is too far away.”
“I think country people look down on city people,” he said.
“When people found out I was from Sydney they didn’t want to talk to me or know me.”
Jules, who grew up on the Central Coast, has lived in Sydney for much of her adult life and believes there should be “more awareness from people in the city” about the struggles of regional Australia.
“I don’t think there’s a divide,” she said.
“I think we’re really empathetic and really love everyone in the country. We know they suffer and have troubles with droughts and food.
“I don’t see a divide from this side, but maybe people in the country feel like we don’t care about them.”
Jules believes people outside of the cities are “genuine people who really care” and are often “doing it really tough”.
“We’re very myopic in the city. I don’t think we think about other people too much so maybe we should think about other people more.”
Tom, who has lived in Sydney for two years after growing up in Coffs Harbour, says there is a “massive divide” and believes city residents need to “get out into the bush”.
“People who live in the cities have access to everything, but I don’t know if [regional people] really care,” he said.
“It’s so much nicer out there. You’ve got the bush, the stars and the birds.”
Mazey O’Reilly, a budding actor originally from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, is in a unique position after experiencing life in both regional and urban Australia.
She grew up in regional Western Australia after moving from Alice Springs at a young age, and believes the divide runs deep in even the most fundamental of services.
“There’s a divide in the economy, job market, education opportunities, school facilities, funding, infrastructure, public transport,” she said.
“Moving to the city has been like moving to another country.”
She moved to the city for access to more opportunities and believes the switch has given her a “new perspective on Australia”.
“I feel like I live in the rest of the world now that I’ve moved to the big city,” she said.
“It’s given me a new perspective on Australia and all of the people that make up this country. “But obviously if you’re not seeing that every day, you wouldn’t even know how many people [make] up Australia or what it actually takes to run this country.”
Mazey said residents of regional Australia likely feel “neglected by the government” and that they’re missing out on critical funding.
“It’s hard because where there’s people there’s more attention and priority. But we need to be proactive about equity between regional and metro Australia,” she said.
Janet, 74, has lived in Sydney her entire life and envisions “beautiful landscapes, old country towns and lovely 19th century architecture” when thinking of regional Australia.
“It’s a lovely place to visit but I prefer living in the city,” she said.
“I think we have different interests and that’s not a bad thing. We all choose to live our lives differently and I genuinely think that people grow up with different concerns in the country.”
When it comes to politics, Janet believes many Australians are looking to shift away from the major parties, whether that’s towards independents in the cities or One Nation in the country.
“People don’t like the way Australia looks now compared to when we were kids,” she said.
“For me, I like the way Australia changes. I think change is a good thing, but I know a lot of people fear change.”
Meanwhile, Sydney resident Amadeus believes it’s a case of politicians “preying on the vulnerabilities of country people”.
“These parties seem to be funded by people who actually don’t have their best interests at heart,” he said.
“I feel like [country people] think it’s in their best interest and they feel like they have a different voice. I can see why they think it’s a different way to go but the politicians are playing into it pretty heavily.”
As support for the major parties continues to erode, it’s clear that it’s not just politics that is fragmenting – but the sense of a shared national experience.
Australians are no longer pulling from the same set of institutions, stories, or assumptions about what the country is and who it’s for, but are instead living increasingly parallel lives that rarely meet in the middle.
And whether these once-fringe parties have the glue that will help bind Australia together remains to be seen.