Ararat Mayor Paul Hooper unsurprised by city's 'disadvantaged' ranking

The Dropping Off the Edge report released this week used 22 indicators to rank 667 postcodes in the state.

Ararat was ranked 120th for overall disadvantage.

It ranked second in the state for juvenile convictions and ninth for prison admissions.

Stawell and St Arnaud also ranked among the state's most disadvantaged postcodes, at 113th and 109th respectively.

Cr Hooper said it was no secret Ararat was disadvantaged in some areas.

"This has been a long-standing thing that we have been in the bottom 25 per cent for disadvantaged areas for many years," he said

"Income, health and education all feed into that.

"We are a mixed municipality."

Cr Hooper said low incomes and poor education outcomes went hand in hand.

"There is no denying they are instinctively linked," he said.

“Is it within council's capability of fixing all those things? No. But we will advocate where we can for all members of our community.

“If you are just looking at the statistics in isolation, it could give the impression this place is not worth visiting, being in or living in. In fact, the opposite is true.”

Cr Hopper said he hoped the municipality was slowly overcoming its disadvantages.

"I'd like to think we are, but I only know anecdotally," he said.

"We are aware of it. It’s part of this part of the state, given our neighbours who have had similar issues.

”We work with it every day. There are no quick fixes or easy solutions.”

St Arnaud’s poorest rank in any of the 22 categories was for internet access, where it ranked 16th. The 3478 postcode also ranked poorly for unskilled workers and long-term unemployment.

​Stawell ranked 17^th for juvenile convictions.

Wimmera Uniting Care intake manager Louise Netherway said the statistics were not altogether unsurprising.

“We service a certain amount of support programs in Ararat, but not all of our programs cover them," she said. “St Arnaud sits right on the edge of our service area.

“If we look at our figures since April, they do have a consistent need for support in those areas, but it's not anything absurdly different to other areas

“We are seeing a consistent need across the Wimmera.”

Mrs Netherway said since April, 10 per cent of Wimmera Uniting Care clients had come from Stawell.

”It's difficult to say if that’s because there is a bigger need there though,” she said.

“It is probably more to do with size of the town, and the fact we have an office there, so people are aware of us.”