Towns in Time is a compilation of time series data for Victoria's towns covering the years 1981 to 2011. The data is based on Census data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Towns in Time presents 2011 data for the 2011 definition of each town, together with data under the 2006 definition for 2006 and earlier years. A map showing the difference in the town's boundaries between 2006 and 2011 is attached to each data sheet. It is recommended the user assess this concordance when using time series data.

Victoria in Future 2016 (VIF2016) is the official state government projection of population and households. Projections are used by decision makers across government and in other areas. The results are driven by assumptions concerning demographic and land use trends. Projections are based on the latest (30 June 2015) population estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and incorporate the results of the 2011 Census. For Victoria and major regions, the projections cover the period from 2011 to 2051. For Local Government Areas (LGA) and Victoria in Future Small Areas (VIFSA), the projections extend to 2031.

The 2014 Town and Community Profiles bring together information on more than 1000 Victorian communities from a wide variety of sources, both internal and external to the Department of Health and Department of Human Services. The Profiles include information on population, geography, services and facilities, and social, cultural and demographic characteristics of each suburb, town and rural catchment in Victoria.

The Local Government Area profiles are produced annually, from data provided by a range of sources. The profiles currently include around 130 indicators relating to population, socio-demographics, health status and health utilisation. Each indicator is provided as a rate for the LGA, and a ranking of the LGA against all 79 LGAs for that indicator. The LGA profiles also include definitions for each data item, with a description, data source and currency.

Understanding how dispersal and gene flow link geographically separated populations over evolutionary history is challenging, particularly in migratory marine species. In southern right whales (SRWs, Eubalaena australis), patterns of genetic diversity are likely influenced by the glacial climate cycle and recent history of whaling. Here we use a dataset of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences (n=1,327) and nuclear markers (17 microsatellite loci, n=222) from major wintering grounds to investigate circumpolar population structure, historical demography, and effective population size. Analyses of nuclear genetic variation identify two population clusters that correspond to the South Atlantic and Indo-Pacific ocean basins that have similar effective breeder estimates. In contrast, all wintering grounds show significant differentiation for mtDNA, but no sex-biased dispersal was detected using the microsatellite genotypes. An approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) approac h with microsatellite markers compared scenarios with gene flow through time, or isolation and secondary contact between ocean basins, while modeling declines in abundance linked to whaling. Secondary-contact scenarios yield the highest posterior probabilities, implying that populations in different ocean basins were largely isolated and came into secondary contact within the last 25,000 years, but the role of whaling in changes in genetic diversity and gene flow over recent generations could not be resolved. We hypothesise that these findings are driven by factors that promote isolation, such as female philopatry, and factors that could promote dispersal, such oceanographic changes. These findings highlight the application of ABC approaches to infer connectivity in mobile species with complex population histories and currently low levels of differentiation.