How did a civilisation that once seemed destined to grow forever begin to shrink?The Demography of the West opens on the Swan coastal plain — three displacements that are not the same story: First Nations dispossession, a settler family priced out of Fremantle, and a Perth suburb reshaped after the pandemic by migration, housing pressure, and birth rates below replacement. From that human scale, Nathan Webb widens the lens to Western Europe, North America, and Oceania....

This is the memoir of a boy from Perth who lived through one of the largest periods of change Australia has seen - and tried to find his footing inside it.From European-Australian roots, it follows a Millennial's path through the South West and far beyond: from a childhood by the river in Wilson to work that took me around the world - yacht decks in Monaco, helidecks in the Gulf - and from hard-earned success offshore to depression and alcoholism on a mattress on the floor....