"It's the land of milk and honey," says the 43-year-old mechanical engineer.

Last year Mr Perrin, his wife Fiona, and three schoolage children moved to Brisbane from Albury - on the NSW-Victorian border - and they have never looked back.

"This is the place to be," he says. "Work is plentiful, the money's as good if not better than anywhere in Australia, and it's a great place for the kids to grow up."

Sentiments like those are what continues to keep demographers busy in the fastest growing State in Australia.

Latest figures from the 2006 census show that Queensland's overall population continues to swell at historic rates of more than 60,000 people a year, and 1200 people a week move to South East Queensland from interstate and overseas.

Surprisingly, however, the greatest pressure exerted on the South East corner's population is not because of people like Mr Perrin.

It's because of Queenslanders.

An analysis of the census figures by The Real Estate Insitute of Queensland has found that people moving within the State to the South East region accounted for 74pc of new residents.

"While interstate and overseas migration adds to the overall population, it is the migration within Queensland which has the greater impact on the overall distribution of the population," REIQ managing director Dan Molloy said.

From 2001 to 2006, more than 759,000 people made the country-to-city change. The most popular nesting place proved to be the outer north-west suburbs such as Forest Lake, Upper Kedron, Moggill and Doolandella.

South-east outer suburbs and north-west inner suburbs were the second most popular destination. In third and fourth were the Gold Coast's western suburbs and the Sunshine Coast's Wide Bay-Burnett region.

"People often assume that the coastal strip or eastern suburbs would attract the most new residents, however it is no doubt the relative affordability and greater variety of properties and amenities available in the western suburbs and hinterland draws the attention of people," Mr Molloy said.

"This in turn impacts on each region's local amenities, housing, infrastructure, and labour force. As each of these economic factors improves to meet the needs of a growing population."

The Darling Downs rounded out the hot spot list with nearly 60,000 people moving to the region over five years from other parts of Queensland.

"People continue to see the Darling Downs as an ideal place to call home for both the local amenities and good employment options. With house prices still well below $300,000 in most of the region's towns, it is unlikely that its popularity will wane any time soon," Mr Molloy said.