According to the ABS Australia's population hit the 25 million mark at about 11pm EST last night. This is at least 30 years earlier than previous predictions. Where are they comming from? 62% from migration. and 38% from the birth rate.
On the migration front Chinese and Indians make up the two biggest groups. 90% of new arrivals settle in Sydney and Melbourne. By visa category international students are the largest group of arrivals, and China is the most common country of birth for international students. At the present rate Australia's population will hit 40 million by 2050.

Is Australia's population growth sustainable?

"Is Australia's population growth sustainable?".

No.

Dear Paul,

Is our population growth sustainable?

It could be - if new arrivals were sent to our regional
areas and helped with towns that are dieing. Of course
there needs to be major investments in infrastructure in
those areas - services need to be provided to attract
people to those areas. But it would be a win-win situation
if this was to happen for all concerned. We need to encourage
a move away from the congested urban city areas. And the
government could help make this possible.

cont'd ...

There should be a contract for all new permanent migrants
to live in regional areas for a minimum of ten or more
years which would encourage development of those areas
and keep those settlers in those areas for a longer period
of time.

Tried to look at this in another thread right now my answer remains no, we do not even yet have the water to fill our inland with towns and villages and we see that in this drought, we however will continue to grow and convince ourselves growth ,constant growth, is the only way for prosperity until we hit the wall and see we should have found sustainable ways to live

We used to despise the graziers who would keep building their herds in the good times, than start bleating for help when the inevitable drought came along.

The more prudent respectable grazier ran his property with reasonable numbers, tuned to the seasons. They made far less money in the good times, & still had a bit of a problem in the really bad, but did deserve help at those times. They had due respect for the carrying capacity of their property.

Today it is the nation, & lousy government that is showing no respect for the carrying capacity of the continent. The continent is screaming that we are overstocking with sheep, cattle, & more importantly people. Until we wake up to the limited carrying capacity of the driest continent, & stop any immigration above sustaining existing population we are going to struggle.

Foxy I'm afraid you have it wrong. Mostly there is no reason for those country towns to grow. Many were railway towns, & as rail traffic has reduced, & the rolling stock increased it's reliability & service distance, they are dying.

Many others serviced the agriculture in a district. Now with long distance transport, small towns are no longer needed. At the same time agriculture has required much larger properties to survive, & mechanisation has reduced farm labour numbers. This greatly reduced the rural population, so the service towns shrink.

I recently had a trip through some of my rural upbringing areas. The only town I visited which was growing was Young NSW. The reason cherries. Cherries are a high value crop, grown on small holdings, requiring a high workforce. The growers do well, as do the workers, but not so well that they fly to Sydney to buy a shirt, as the very wealthy do.

All the other towns were contracting. More people won't grow the towns, except as welfare towns, with all the problems that brings.

I doubt the residents of towns where people still don't have to lock their doors would welcome an influx of migrants, particularly from Africa or the middle east.