Mrs Gebert moved to the Wimmera from Sydney about six years ago with her husband Kevin and son Cody to find greater work-life balance.

“We wanted to have more space, and more time to spend with our son,” she said.

The family has never looked back.

Mrs Gebert said not only had they achieved their aims, they had been welcomed by the new community, ran a flourishing business – The Creekside Hotel – and were involved in an array of groups.

However stories like the Gebert’s are still somewhat unique.

Census data released this week showed that while populations in cities and larger regional areas are growing at a rapid rate, those in rural areas continued to decline.

Australia’s capital cities experienced a 10.5-per cent population growth from 2011 to 2016, and regional cities including Bendigo and Ballarat posted similar gains.

In contrast, resident numbers in five of the seven Wimmera municipalities declined markedly.

Last week, the Victorian Coalition released the Population Policy Taskforce report.

The taskforce aims to manage and decentralise the state’s population growth by encouraging people to move away from Melbourne to regional and rural areas.

Mrs Gebert said many people’s biggest fears when considering moving to a rural area were health services and schooling.

“Our schools here are fantastic. They really tailor programs for all students and take a more individualised focus than in the city,” she said.

“And in terms of healthcare, Rural Northwest Health has award-winning services and can offer an array of things.

“People will come out to your home – that doesn’t happen in the city.”

Mrs Gebert said there were plenty of opportunities in small communities.

“If you have ever wanted to start a business, you have the opportunity to do that in a regional area,” she said.

“We are halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne, so you still have access to the cities if you want it – you’re not cut off.”

West Wimmera Mayor ​Bruce Meyer agreed the region had much to offer. He said regional growth was crucial, but finding a way to attract people in large numbers was difficult.

“Melbourne can’t handle such large influxes of population, so we need to encourage people to move elsewhere,” he said.

“If someone could tell us how to reverse the trend and address population decline, we'd be very thankful.”