Suburbs to avoid in Bundaberg

No suburb is bad for everybody, and a list that says otherwise is an opinion with a number attached. What does exist is a short set of hazards the states measure and publish, suburb by suburb. This page ranks Bundaberg suburbs on those, highest first: recorded crime, bushfire history, flood overlays and aircraft noise. Only suburbs with at least 1,000 residents are ranked.

Bundaberg West carries the most measured hazard in the ranking, leading on recorded crime. Bundaberg South and Bundaberg East follow. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 21 eligible Bundaberg suburbs.

Read each number for what it is. Recorded crime is offences per resident, so a suburb with a shopping centre, a nightlife strip or a railway interchange carries crimes committed against businesses and visitors — the busiest retail suburb is usually near the top and is not a dangerous place to live. Bushfire history records where fire has burned, and is highest in the leafy suburbs at the bush edge that people move to on purpose. A flood overlay is a planning control, not a prediction. Aircraft noise comes from airport contours and changes street by street. All of it is a suburb average, and nobody lives in a suburb average: check the address before ruling anywhere in or out.

Bundaberg suburbs with the highest measured hazards

Ranked on recorded crime (weighted heaviest), bushfire history, flood overlays and aircraft noise, each measured against other suburbs in the same pool. A suburb with no crime record is excluded, and a hazard the state does not publish is left out of the score rather than counted as zero.

1

Bundaberg West

QLD 4670 · 2,596 residents

74/100 hazard score · Bundaberg's highest recorded crime

D 74.4
2

Bundaberg South

QLD 4670 · 3,494 residents

72/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 95% of Bundaberg

D 71.9
3

Bundaberg East

QLD 4670 · 2,839 residents

69/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 90% of Bundaberg

D 69.4
4

Millbank

QLD 4670 · 2,499 residents

67/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 85% of Bundaberg

C 66.9
5

Bundaberg North

QLD 4670 · 5,563 residents

64/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 80% of Bundaberg

D 64.4
6

Avoca

QLD 4670 · 4,912 residents

62/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 75% of Bundaberg

C 61.9
7

Walkervale

QLD 4670 · 2,981 residents

59/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 70% of Bundaberg

C 59.4
8

Kepnock

QLD 4670 · 4,501 residents

56/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 62% of Bundaberg

C 55.6
9

Svensson Heights

QLD 4670 · 3,334 residents

56/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 62% of Bundaberg

C 55.6
10

Bargara

QLD 4670 · 8,883 residents

55/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 35% of Bundaberg · bushfire history

C 55.0
11

Avenell Heights

QLD 4670 · 5,028 residents

51/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 52% of Bundaberg

C 50.6
12

Norville

QLD 4670 · 2,476 residents

51/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 52% of Bundaberg

C 50.6
13

Thabeban

QLD 4670 · 2,971 residents

47/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 45% of Bundaberg

C 46.9
14

Burnett Heads

QLD 4670 · 2,908 residents

44/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 40% of Bundaberg

C 44.4
15

Branyan

QLD 4670 · 4,660 residents

38/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 28% of Bundaberg

B 38.1

Ranked from 21 qualifying suburbs.

How we ranked these

50% recorded crime · 25% recorded bushfire history · 25% aircraft noise. Each hazard is a percentile within Bundaberg's candidate pool — the highest reading scores highest on that leg — then blended, crime-led. A hazard the state does not publish at suburb level is left out and the other weights scaled up, rather than counted as zero. Crime is recorded offences per resident from state police data, never compared across state lines; bushfire and flood come from mapped overlays and noise from airport ANEF contours. Suburbs with no crime record, or no measured hazard at all, are excluded. Socio-economic measures are deliberately not part of the score. See how we calculate for the full methodology.

Common questions about this ranking

Which Bundaberg suburbs should I avoid?

None of them for everybody. A suburb near the top of this list carries more of one or more measured hazards than its neighbours, which matters more to some buyers than others — a family by a bushland reserve accepts bushfire risk that a retiree may not. Use the list to decide which addresses to look at more closely, never to rule a whole suburb out.

How is this ranking scored?

Each Bundaberg suburb is scored on 50% recorded crime, 25% recorded bushfire history, and 25% aircraft noise. Every hazard is turned into a percentile within Bundaberg, so a score reads as how the suburb compares with the rest of the city, then blended with crime weighted heaviest. Flood overlays is left out because the state does not publish it at suburb level, rather than being counted as zero.

Why is a busy shopping or nightlife suburb near the top?

Recorded crime is offences per resident. Offences committed against shops, venues and visitors are divided by the few people who live nearby, so commercial centres score high without being dangerous places to live. It measures reported offences, not your personal risk, and is only ever compared within the same state.

Why is SEIFA or income not part of the score?

Because they describe the people who live somewhere, not a hazard you would face there. Adding them would turn this into a ranking of lower-income suburbs under the word "avoid". Income and socio-economic data are on every suburb page.

Why are some suburbs missing from the list?

A suburb only appears if it has a crime record, at least 1,000 residents and at least one measured hazard. A suburb without a crime record is excluded rather than scored, and in states where suburb-level crime data is not published the ranking is not produced.

Same list in other cities

Related

Rankings last computed 12 October 2026. Recomputed after each ACARA schools data refresh.

Was the information on this page useful to you?

Save this page for later

We'll email you a link to this page so you can finish reading it on any device. We use your address once to send it and don't keep it.

or