CSIRO report reveals where Australia's tech sector is clustering – ABC News

CSIRO report reveals where Australia's tech sector is clustering
A new report has shed light on where Australia's burgeoning tech industry is centred, and experts say it comes with a warning for Australia's already competitive housing market.
The report from the CSIRO and the Tech Council of Australia was compiled to provide a geographic map of Australia's digital centres.
The report authors found the industry was unsurprisingly clustered in four major capital cities, but also identified 60 metropolitan suburbs and 36 regional towns.
They found that those specific clusters made up 62 per cent of all the tech jobs created in Australia.
They also analysed patent data and found that firms within capital city clusters were, on average, creating 63 per cent more applications than those outside them.
The report, titled "The geography of Australia's digital industries", is being released today as part of the tech showcase at federal Parliament House.
The researchers said they hoped their findings were a sign Australia's tech landscape was thriving enough to prevent an exodus of local talent, but there are some concerns that innovation could come at a social cost.
The researchers analysed workforce data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, identifying areas with a higher proportion of workers in digital occupations.
Census data shows most Australian adults gained a qualification after leaving school, yet the nation still relies on migrants to fill skill gaps.
Australia's capital cities are home to most of the nation's tech jobs with billion-dollar companies – known as tech unicorns – like Atlassian, Canva, and Employment Hero based there.
Report lead author Stefan Hajkowicz from the CSIRO said the report reinforced existing research which has found that companies that cluster together grow faster and attract more skilled workers and greater investment.
"It's no accident that if you look at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, have all put their headquarters very close to each other in Sydney," he said.
"As these clusters form, the investment money gets attracted, which attracts more companies which attracts more workers which attracts more investment."
The report said Sydney had 81 ASX-listed companies which employ 119,636 workers and a value of $52 billion on the ASX, while Melbourne has 62 ASX-listed companies which have 95,112 workers and a value of $203 billion.
Brisbane and Canberra are no slouch either, with 33,534 and 19,362 workers, respectively.
Regional areas like Daylesford in Victoria and Newcastle in New South Wales are also considered hotspots for certain types of jobs, like graphic designers.
In the report, researchers said it was important to ensure the development of clusters was sustainable.
Hal Pawson, a housing expert at UNSW who was not involved in the report, said that when the tech industry took off in Silicon Valley, the area experienced an influx of well-paid workers who could afford to outbid locals, sparking "enormous turmoil" in the housing market.
But, Professor Pawson said the phenomenon wasn't unique to Silicon Valley or major cities like Melbourne and Sydney, noting clusters in areas like Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Newcastle where lifestyle serves as a major drawing point for companies.
The report noted that while "the vast bulk of digital technology specialisations are in our greater capital cities … one of a few professions that defies this trend is graphic designers".
"Whilst present in our cities, the 'graphic and web designers, and illustrators' profession is well represented in regional areas," the report said.
In the report, CSIRO identified the beachside suburb of Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast as a niche cluster for this profession, employing people in the industry at 3.2 times the rate of the national average.
"It's people in that demographic — many of whom don't have kids either — and therefore are looking for entertaining things to do with their money and wanting to live in places where those entertaining things are available," Professor Pawson said.
He said the tech sector differed from other industries in its tendency to agglomerate into geographic clusters.
“The desire of companies to cluster together with other companies doing similar sorts of things is stronger in this era,” he said.
The CSIRO's Stefan Hajkowicz said while there was no data to suggest that the tech industry was impacting Australia's housing market, international examples, such as Silicon Valley in the US, served as examples of how housing demand could increase when one city became the epicentre of a tech boom.
"I know that's a sensitive topic, but it's an important one to look at," Dr Hajkowicz said.
"Google put a billion dollars into affordable housing in Silicon Valley because for every one affordable apartment there are four people competing for it.
"We can look to the world and learn how to do this better … you don't want that two-speed economy and society to emerge."
Dr Hajkowicz said he hoped one of the benefits of the emerging industries would be retaining talent within Australia.
He said up and coming workers often felt like they had to go overseas to work in fields like artificial intelligence.
"For a while as soon as you got trained up by the Australian university system, you're out to get a California salary but not just a California salary, the California opportunity," he said.
"I think it's time to put that one to rest in that we have the Silicon Valley equivalent here, you can make it in Australia, you can build your entire career in Australia."
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