City-dwellers are leaving Australia’s capital cities and heading to the country, new Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

8000 people left Melbourne in the June quarter, compared to 6000 people who left Sydney in the first lockdown.

Demographer Bernard Salt said they had seen a similar shift in the 1990s, after a recession, at which point Melbourne “re-invented” itself.

“I suspect there is a pent-up demand, particularly from Melburnians waiting for that ring of steel to be relaxed, and then there will be a bigger outflow when these figures are calculated for the December quarter.

“It has to be said, by the mid-1990s Melbourne was starting to recover with major construction projects like CityLink, Crown Casino was constructed, Dockland Stadium, the Grand Prix kicked off at that time.

“In some respects, it can be used as a circuit breaker for a city to reinvent itself beyond the pain.”

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Image: Getty