Source: The Age

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/22/1079939577696.html

On March 23, 2004 The Age reported, "If you believe statistics, Melbourne is the witch capital of Australia. According to the 2001 census there are 4155 pagans in the metropolitan area — the highest concentration in Australia...The number of Australians identifying themselves as either witches or wiccans more than quadrupled in the five years between the last two censuses...With these strangely bedazzling statistics and groups, the definition of a witch is changing with the times...Witchcraft, says Lilith — a nurse in the regular world — is about celebrating diversity. Everything is beautiful in its own way...'It is clearly growing in popularity,' says Dr. Douglas Ezzy, senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Tasmania...As an academic who has studied witchcraft for about 10 years, Ezzy says that the misrepresentation of the practice is something that he is particularly sensitive to and that the definition of a witch has become more varied. 'Witchcraft used to be about people who followed the rituals and practices of the Gardnerian witchcraft Book of Shadows...But now there is a huge variety of people who call themselves witches,' he says. 'But, in the same way that there are different versions of Christianity, there are different traditions within witchcraft. Some of these traditions have strict criteria for who can or cannot claim to be a member of their tradition.'"