Long distance commuters in Australia: A socio-economic and demographic profile

There are various types of long distance commutes in Australia, such as the widely known
fly-in-fly-out commutes that occur in sparsely populated mining areas or daily commutes
from peri urban areas to a nearby city. This paper provides a review of the published
literature on different types of long-distance commutes. It analyses long distance commutes of over 100 kilometres and elicits the underlying drivers while adopting measures to overcome data issues inherent in researching important trends in long distance commuting.

The paper presents new empirical evidence on types of long distance commuting that
occurred in Australia in 2006 and outlines some implications for planning and formulation of
policies.