Kwinana vs Melville

Kwinana and Melville are two nearby areas in Western Australia with very different levels of accessibility. Melville is very walkable, with 96.5% of homes within a 15-minute walk of city amenities and 87.7% near health services. In contrast, Kwinana is mostly car-dependent; only 33.1% of homes have a 15-minute-city walkshed and 19.1% are near health services. Kwinana has a far larger First Nations population, with 2,016 people compared to 927 in Melville, though the First Nations unemployment rate is well higher in Kwinana at 17.2%.

Both areas have tracked similarly since 2011 in some respects, sharing very similar figures for the typical First Nations personal income and the share of people who speak a First Nations language. They also have almost identical terrain slopes. While Melville has much higher rates of First Nations Year 12 completion at 49.4% compared to 27.0% in Kwinana, both areas sit in a similar part of the world where public transport and parks remain the most common walkable amenities.