SA has struggled to be economically viable almost since the first settlers. While Perth might be shooting ahead now, I think it was on a similar trajectory to Brisbane for most of that time while Adelaide flatlined… South Australia is a difficult place to maintain long term growth I think. On the plus side without the boom you don’t get the bust and growth has its own challenges.
In the mid-70s, our population was smaller than South Australia (around 600k).
SA has struggled to be economically viable almost since the first settlers. While Perth might be shooting ahead now, I think it was on a similar trajectory to Brisbane for most of that time while Adelaide flatlined… South Australia is a difficult place to maintain long term growth I think. On the plus side without the boom you don’t get the bust and growth has its own challenges.