Population of Australian towns

The population of all of Australia's Urban-Centre Localities (UCLs) with more than 2,000 people are listed below, based on counts from the 2001 Census.

A UCL is defined as the contiguous areas making up a gazetted locality with a consistently high population density relative to the surroundings. It is not based on any legally defined boundaries, such as where the authority of a shire or town councils start and end, except that where a conurbanisation extends over a state boundary the UCL is split.

The numbers are based on persons found in the boundaries of each UCL on the night of the census, regardless of citizenship, age or place of usual residency.

Some facts only marginally more useful than small talk:

• Melbourne is the largest UCL in Australia (2,083 square kilometres).
• An aboriginal settlement in the far north Western Australia called Kalumburu forms the smallest UCL, with a size of only 84.2 square metres.
• Kalumburu also has the greatest population density with (4,083 persons per square kilometre). If we ignore this statistical oddity, the most densely packed Aussies outside of a Earl's Court pub are in the Alpine resort of Thredbo Village (3,342 people per square kilometre, a third more than in Sydney).
• 17 UCLs are entirely populated by Australian-born people, most of these being indigenous communities. Grafton has the highest concentration of Aussie-born (91.6%) out of towns with at least 10,000 people.
• Only 36.5% of the people at the exclusive tourist town of Port Douglas north of Cairns was Australian born on census night.
• Forget the outback - Australians are coastal dwellers. The only large inland cities are the gold-mining centres of Ballarat and Bendigo, and Canberra (built inland at the beginning of the twentieth century to secure the national government from an anticipated Prussian naval invasion)
• Sydney has the largest number of people born overseas. However Melbourne has more people who were born in Croatia, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia and Greece (although contrary to popular belief, Melbourne is not the world's third largest Greek city, there are far more people of Greek heritage living in European and North American cities). Perth has the largest number of Singaporean-born in Australia.
• The town with the highest proportion of American-born persons is Alice Springs (3.3%). Note the CIA-run facility of Pine Gap down the road.
• The town with the greatest gender imbalance with more females over males is Perthville in New South Wales (61.4% female). Don't get too hopeful guys - the town of 420 is home to a nunnery.
• The town with the greatest gender imbalance with more males over females is Lenister in Western Australia (29.6% female). Any girls here into desert-dwelling miners?