It's not Australia it's worldwide.
Just check out the mag editorials from overseas.
It's not money - folks spend a fortune on their toys and recreation thoughout the first world.
It might be having to do some work for a licence but most folks don't know that when they walk up.
I get the chance to layover all over the world. I make a beeline for the small airfields. Everywhere I go airfields are populated by old men and old aeroplanes. It appears ossified and dull as ditchwater.
Unless it is the young guy who hopes to become a pro and join your oversupply of pilots the prospects are dismal. Light aircraft/GA flying isn't not percieved as being sexy, aspirational or state of the art. Doesn't matter what I think or you think though - just look at film, TV, magazines, videos.
Light aircraft simply don't appear anymore as high status, 'glamorous' or even reeking of testosterone the way bikes, cars, boats do. They did in the sixties and seventies. That's now a full generation in the past. To a twenty year old there is absolutely no visual difference between a flight school Cherokee and the ones he sees Sean and Honor flying in a 40 year old Bond film. In a world where fashion changes every 15 minutes this is not considered a good thing.
A young potential student of either sex can't park a 150 outside their favourite bar - and Cessna don't mean squat in the giddy world of brand recognition. This is going on worldwide, in every branch of airsport. Just look at the photos in the magazines. Grey hair in varying amounts everywhere.
Airspace doesn't mean a thing when traditional training school aircraft simply aren't cool and have no style. They generally look strange and very old fashioned - in fact laughable. If this seems nonsense why not simply go through the pages of a GA mag with a non aviation family teenager. If this seems negative, offering no cures it isn't intended to. Identify the problems first. It's worldwide and you can tap into the huge amount of research and the now desperate promotional work that's been done in the last 20 years.
They haven't cracked it but they have paid a huge amount of money to do the research for you and made the mistakes you can avoid.
Regards
rob