Rhyse Dobler is bright, cheery and speaks openly about life in Victoria's most disadvantaged community.
The 29-year-old's young family has been doing it tough for some time now. They experienced homelessness for about seven months before moving into affordable housing at Norlane, in Geelong's north.
Chatting from a community garden where she volunteers, Rhyse has no issues with the term 'disadvantaged', nor speaking about the reality of the situation shared by so many in her community.
"Disadvantage to me is just the lack of resources to be able to better yourself, or your own situation," Ms Dobler says, sitting with a pile of bright orange carrots stacked next to her gardening gloves.
"Lack of having say a vehicle, lack of a job, lack of a means of getting a better education, lack of time to be able to do all of those things... whilst raising a family.
"Something always happens. The car breaks down, the pet needs to go to the vet... or the washing machine breaks down and you're spending $150 at the laundromat each week because you have children who are bed wetters.
"It just feels like every time you start to get a little bit ahead, things pull you back, and how do you get out of that?"
High school drop out rates, low average income
Fresh census data that ranks Australian areas by disadvantage was released last week, placing Norlane at the top of Victoria's SA2 'small areas' by disadvantage, where it previously ranked third.
Norlane was also the most disadvantaged suburb in the data, excluding six suburbs with fewer than 150 residents.
The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) is based on 2021 Census data, combining responses such as income, education, employment, occupation, housing and family structure to rank the socio-economic standing of areas.
The 2021 census data shows Norlane trailing the state in key areas.
Norlane residents who dropped out of schooling in Year 9 or earlier account for 16.3 per cent of the population, compared to the statewide rate of 7.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, 9.6 per cent of Norlane residents had a bachelor degree or higher, compared with 29.2 per cent of the state.
Just 44.7 per cent of Norlane residents were either employed or looking for work on census night, termed as being "in the workforce", much lower than the statewide 62.4 per cent.
Data found 10.5 per cent of Norlane residents counted themselves as unemployed and looking for work at that time, compared with 5 per cent across the state.
The median household income for Norlane was $909, which equated to almost half the state average of $1,759.
Long term health conditions were also more prevalent in Norlane, including 17.2 per cent reporting mental health conditions — almost double the statewide rate of 8.8 per cent.
Across Victoria, Norlane was followed by Broadmeadows, Campbellfield – Coolaroo, Meadow Heights, Dandenong – South, St Albans – South, Robinvale, Morwell, St Albans – North and Kings Park for the 10 most disadvantaged SA2 areas.
On the other end of the spectrum, the 10 Victorian SA2 areas with the highest socio-economic rankings were Flemington Racecourse, Ivanhoe East – Eaglemont, Glen Iris – East, Beaumaris, East Melbourne, Research – North Warrandyte, Richmond (south) – Cremorne, Toorak, Mount Eliza and Macedon.
Getting ahead amid cycles of disadvantage
Generational disadvantage is a term often used when discussing Norlane.
Despite Geelong overall growing rapidly and ranking mid-pack in the broader SEIFA scores, Norlane has seen a pocket of severe difficulties in recent decades.
It has always been a blue-collar area, but the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs since the 80s has left deep scars on the northern suburbs.
Ms Dobler is familiar with how disadvantage can breed further disadvantage.
"I think mindset is a huge factor to that," she says.
"My parents have always been in a lower-income area as well, so for a long time that was my mindset as well, it was 'oh, I'm never going to get ahead'."
Ms Dobler and many others in her community have learned to turn to one another for support.
She is a part-time kindergarten educator while her husband Daniel is a full-time diesel mechanic. But they also volunteer at community groups, including the local scouts and community garden.
They are appreciative users of a handful of services from Norlane Community Initiatives (NCI), one of the multitude of local groups providing direct support and initiatives to help lift the area out of disadvantage.
A strong community driving solutions
The charity's co-chief executive, Kaylene Reeves, says the community has become adept at supporting itself, but needs to work on broader solutions with consistent funding support.
"The solution to generational change in a neighbourhood like this isn't going to be quick," Ms Reeves says in a brief break helping at the social enterprise Aviary cafe.
"It's something that is going to take probably a generation to change.
"It's a multifaceted issue really. We need to stop looking at one single issue on its own, I think issues all impact each other and lead to further issues as well.
"Until we start kind of taking a step back and looking at the systems and the broader things that impact these issues, we're not really going to see any change."
"I think there's always a negative story that's told about Norlane, but there's hundreds and hundreds of positive stories that come out of here every day that are incredibly inspirational to see.
"How families are really helping each other, neighbours know neighbours, supporting neighbours, transporting each other around, bringing each other food.
"And it's really great to see the sense of community that exists in this place and how the neighbourhood really works together to build each other up and come up with solutions together."
