Non-English-speaking hotspots in Australia's cities

August 21, 2008

... Sydney's Hurstville ... where 43 per cent of the locals speak Chinese... At this rate, Hurstville will be entirely Chinese-speaking by the middle of the 2020s...

... Arabic is spoken at home by 40 per cent of the population in Chullora ... in the city's southwest.

... Chinese speakers have invaded Hurstville about twice as fast as Arabic speakers have moved into Chullora.

... Cabramatta ... where 35 per cent of the locals speak Vietnamese at home...

... Melbourne CBD ... now has 29 per cent of people who speak Chinese at home.

The truly extraordinary feature of Melbourne's new Chinese residents is the speed with which they have arrived...

... this group, as early as next decade, will have the wherewithal to display their success in new housing designed to reflect not Australian aspirationalism, but middle-class Chinese and Arab ideals.

And housing designs are the least of their ideals we have to worry about.