Parts of the City of Greater Bendigo are among the most disadvantaged areas in the state, with the Bendigo, Kangaroo Flat and Eaglehawk areas identified as being among the least well off.

The Dropping off the edge 2015 report, released yesterday, ranks each postcode area in Australia against 22 indicators including housing stress, family income, education and unemployment.

The postcodes 3550, 3555 and 3556 all fell in the state’s bottom quartile.

The worst indicators for the 3550 postcode – which stretches between White Hills and Spring Gully and West Bendigo and Strathdale –  were in long-term unemployment, domestic violence and the rate of juvenile convictions.

The area was 11^th worst ranked in Victoria for the rate of people relying on rental assistance while the 3555 postcode, which encompasses Kangaroo Flat, Golden Square and Big Hill, was ranked 21^st out of 667.

Bendigo Family and Financial Services general manager Jenny Elvey said a lack of employment was one of the biggest drivers of disadvantage in the region.

“There isn’t any employment in Bendigo full stop the way that’s reducing,” she said.

“Bendigo’s got a high rental market but there’s not a lot of rental properties reasonably priced, the majority of them are $280 onwards and if you’ve got a person on Centrelink income (who is) getting Newstart payments that’s just about all of their payment.”

The 3556 postcode, which includes Eaglehawk, California Gully and Jackass Flat, was ranked fifth worst in the state for the rate of juvenile convictions, which Ms Elvey said may also be linked to unemployment.

“Centrelink payments are quite low for families to be able to survive on anyway, once they pay rent and put food on the table there’s nothing left, so you’ve lost that family cohesion and doing things together because there’s just not the money there to do things together,” she said.

“You’ve got some really lovely areas in Eaglehawk as well, it’s just there’s a couple of high density areas that may impact on those figures and there’s not a lot of youth services out there.”

Eaglehawk also had the 25th highest rate of child maltreatment compared with Bendigo at 95th highest.

St Luke’s Anglicare regional director Carolyn Wallace said the statistics reflected systemic issues.

“We need to value and include young people, we need to find meaningful education and employment opportunities for young people,” she said

“If people feel valued and respected they’ll understand their rights and responsibilities better and you’ll have have lower crime rates.”

Meanwhile the outlying suburbs of Junortoun, Strathfieldsaye, Mandurang and Maiden Gully were considered “advantaged”.

Ms Elvey said this could be attributed to a higher concentration of wealth in those areas.

“If you look at the housing market you’ll see you’ve got a higher end property (market),” she said.

“Buildings out around Strathfieldsaye, Junortoun, Huntly, they’re bigger houses, more expensive, so you would expect there to be less disadvantage.”

The report also classified Epsom as advantaged but Ms Elvey said she thought that might change in the near future.

“If you look at the amount of rentals in that area, Goynes Road, that area, there the majority of the properties are rental properties,” she said.

Heathcote was ranked as one of the most disadvantaged regions in Victoria by the report, released yesterday.

The report’s authors placed the 3523 postcode in the third most disadvantaged band, following an in depth analysis.

The 3523 postcode area placed sixth last out of 667 in grade three literacy and numeracy and in the bottom 20s for low family income, young adult engagement, school readiness, disability support and long term unemployment.

Ms Elvey said unemployment was a big factor in the figures.

“Heathcote hasn’t got a lot of industry out there, you get people that move there because of the lower rental but there’s not the employment,” she said.

“There’s not the same medical services so that causes more financial strain (and) public transport’s another issue they would have, getting to medical appointments and even to do what they’ve got to do to keep getting their Newstart, that would be quiet difficult from a place like Heathcote.”

The outer suburban region including Goornong, Barnadown and Fosterville has the 9th highest rate of psychiatric admissions in Victoria.

The region also has the 14th highest rate of domestic violence despite relatively low levels of disadvantage based on the report’s other criteria.

Jesuit Social Services spokesman Andrew Yule said it wasn’t uncommon to find pockets of disadvantage within wider communities.

“It’s not too unusual to see advantage and disadvantage right next to each other which is quite disappointing when you think about the Australian culture where we’d like to think everyone is given a fair go,” he said.

"That might be because of... some of those more social factors around income and the limitations that a lack of income places on you.”

The report was produced on behalf of Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia.