Cervantes vs Grey

Cervantes and Grey are nearby areas in Western Australia with very different scales. Cervantes is a small town of 480 people with a school and public transport. In contrast, Grey is sparsely populated with only five residents. There are sharp differences in income: typical family income is far higher in Grey at $3,250 per week, while typical household income is far higher in Cervantes at $1,044. Cervantes is also much more accessible, with a walkability score of 4.3 (somewhat walkable) and most homes within a short walk of health services and parks. Grey is car-dependent, with a score of 0.1.

Neither area has homes within a 15-minute walk of groceries. This lack of local shopping is a shared reality for both, though the two have tracked differently in other ways. Since 2011, the gap in typical weekly rent has stayed well higher in Cervantes at $300 compared to $240 in Grey. While Cervantes has a larger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, both areas have typical resident ages that sit well above the national figure.