Is rural-residential sprawl a recognised threatening process? Should be.

Tightly aligned with rampant population growth, it's happening everywhere, including far from capital cities and far from the coast.

Every little clearing is another 'house in the bush'.

Not to single anyone out (I live in a house-in-the-bush), but there's likely now hundreds of thousands of these things*. Why are they so little mentioned?

(*How many? We don't even seem to know. Census classification? Can't find one.)

The Census has stuff about small towns (a heart-felt political focus). Do we get counted there ... but somehow not separated from the town itself? Or is there better data somewhere?

https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Small%20Towns~113

ABS does have a classification Bounded Locality: "The very smallest towns (described as 'Bounded Localities') comprising smaller settlements and clusters of residential populations, including villages, towns" ...generally <200 population but 500 in areas with significant tourism.

...Which isn't really it, because if you're a house-in-the-bush on the fringe of a larger town, you probs won't be counted there, and if you happen to live right in a smaller town -- less than 200 population, or 500 -- you will be. Seems we don't know.

Which is remarkable, no? ...Especially given this focus on 'rr-rooral and regional' in Aus politics.

(You'd think might be data on say how many households rely on tank water ... as some sort of guide. Can't even find that. How many *have* a tank, yes, easy; *rely* on it, no.)

FWIW, at 2016 Census there were about 150,000 people living in 'Bounded Localities' just in NSW, in about 75,000 dwellings.

https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SOS12

But what threats? Obviously: Disturbance, habitat fragmentation, clearing, roading for access, sediment runoff, sewage and pesticide runoff, thousands of dams altering hydrology, invasive weed introductions, exotic animals (dogs, horses, goats ... the whole shebang).

More subtly perhaps: fire management. Lots of these places burnt down last year, and many many more came close. So now we have even more clearing for fire safety, but also probs *less* overall burning for ecological and hazard reduction purposes (too many houses, just too hard).