Ararat VIC 3377
Located in Victoria, Ararat sits 207 km from Melbourne CBD, around 2 hours 20 minutes by car. The town has 8,500 residents, a median age of 45, and a median household income of $63,232 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the bottom 20% nationally. The town grew 2.4% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $250 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,083. Ararat is characterised by high crime risk and no recorded flood exposure. 7 schools sit within the town boundary, and walkability is low.
Is Ararat a good town?
Ararat scores a D (23/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on prices, weaker on schools, transit, safety, and community.
Trailing peer schools
7 schools
Car-dependent
Walkability 4/100 · 207.4 km · 141 min drive to Melbourne
More affordable than most
Median $425K · More affordable than 89% of VIC
High crime risk
Fire 51/100 · Crime 85/100 · Flood 0/100
Highly disadvantaged
SEIFA decile 2/10 · median age 45 · 8,500 residents
Liveability Rating
23 / 100 · Ranked #800 in VICEach bar is Ararat's rank among VIC suburbs, from 0 to 100 (higher is better).
How do you rate the liveability in Ararat?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
23 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataArarat's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $425,000, roughly 12% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$425,000
Based on 360 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 52 days — median across 129 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 35 sales $310K
- 3 bed 214 sales $406K
- 4 bed 93 sales $540K
- 5 bed 10 sales $612K
Units
$347,500
Based on 54 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 37 days — median across 17 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 1 bed 7 sales $176K
- 2 bed 29 sales $310K
- 3 bed 14 sales $438K
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Ararat are currently listed at around $470,000 on average. Based on 105 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$470K
105 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$313K
14 units listed in the last 6 months.
119 of the suburb's 3,225 dwellings (3.7%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Ararat rent for around $435 a week on average, based on 52 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
Houses
$435/wk
52 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
Units
$350/wk
9 units advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
61 rentals advertised against an estimated 884 rented homes (6.9%) in the last 6 months.
Rental affordability
June quarter 2025127 Acceptable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 24% of its income on the median rent in postcode 3377.
SGS Rental Affordability Index: a score of 100 means rent takes 30% of income, the usual housing-stress line; lower scores are less affordable. "Region" is the capital city or the rest of the state.
Gross rental yield
Indicative$435/week ($23,000 a year) on a $470,000 median
$350/week ($18,000 a year) on a $313,000 median
Gross yield — before strata, rates, management, insurance and vacancy. Calculated from median advertised rents and median asking prices over the last 6 months. How we calculate.
Is Ararat safe? Crime statistics
2026Crime in Ararat sits in the high band, with 889 incidents recorded in 2026 — down about 5% on the prior year.
889 offences
5.4% since 2025Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202524 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 1 of them fatal
Where they happened
Crashes are counted where they happened, so a main road through the town carries people passing through; this is not a measure of risk to residents. Roads are listed with 3 or more serious crashes.
Schools
Seven schools serve Ararat, and the cohort is trailing peer-suburb performance.
- • 1,351 students across 6 schools (avg 225)
- • Sectors: 5 Government, 2 Catholic
- • ICSEA 862-1038, median 978 (below the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: Marian College (369 students)
Primary
Secondary
Walkability
Ararat is very car-dependent on foot — at 4/100, nearly all errands require a car. Within the town there are 3 supermarkets, 16 parks and 10 cafes to anchor that walking radius.
We hold no public transport timetable data for this area, so public transport is not rated here and the score is spread across the remaining components. It is not counted as zero.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Ararat.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 4.0 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 35.9 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 23.3 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 2 min
- Span of service
- 15.9 hours
Scheduled service only, based on the 21 October 2026 timetable. Reliability (delays, cancellations) not measured.
NBN connectivity
The internet access technology available across NBN premises in Ararat.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 41%
- Premises covered
- 4,432
NBN Co fixed-line and fixed-wireless premises, as at 30 December 2025. Higher-quality technologies (full fibre) score above copper, wireless, and satellite. Actual speeds depend on your plan.
Amenities
Ararat: council population
The three add up to the change above. These are council-wide figures from the ABS, not figures for this town alone — this town's own population is in the census section above.
Socio-economic profile
The ABS scores 23 small areas inside this town and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 6 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this town rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Ararat is home to about 8,500 residents, with a median age of 45, a touch above the national 38. Median household income runs at $63,000 a year, with unemployment at 4.0%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
8,500
Median Age
45
Median Household Income
$63,232/yr
Census Median Rent
$250/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,083/mo
Avg Household Size
2.2
Median Personal Income
$35,412/yr
Unemployment Rate
4.0%
Unoccupied Dwellings
10.5%
Total Dwellings
3,225
Owner-Occupier Rate
72.6%
Houses
89.5%
Rental Stress
20.6%
Mortgage Stress
20.6%
Work From Home
7.4%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
104 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 8 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 847 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 82.2%
- English Spoken at Home
- 79.9%
- Employment Rate
- 46.5%
- Completed Year 12
- 29.6%
Occupations
Religion
Country of Birth (overseas)
Largest overseas birthplaces, as a share of all residents.
When They Arrived
Share of all residents by the year they arrived in Australia. Periods cover different numbers of years, so compare the shape rather than the bar widths.
243 residents (2.9%) arrived since 2016. Australia’s borders were closed to most arrivals from March 2020, so the last two years of that period are much smaller than the ones before them — nationally 260,799 people arrived in 2019 against 28,521 in 2021.
Where New Residents Came From
Where residents aged five and over lived five years before the 2021 Census, for those who lived somewhere else.
5.2% of residents (420) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Melbourne (345).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 8,079 residents aged five and over. Areas are ABS statistical regions. Small counts are approximate: the ABS adjusts every figure slightly to protect privacy.
Languages Spoken at Home
Top languages other than English, as a share of all residents.
Age Distribution
Family & Household Composition
Commute to Work
1% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (23 of 3,383).
City centre: the ABS area around each capital's CBD, such as Sydney Inner City or Perth City (which takes in Subiaco and Leederville). 2021 Census place of work.
Local Jobs
People who work in this town against employed people who live here, 2021 Census.
About 4,012 people work here; 3,383 employed residents live here.
Roughly as many jobs as working residents (1.2 per resident). At least 16% of the people who work here must live elsewhere.
Counts are by place of work and place of usual residence. The ABS counts jobs in zones; where a zone spans several places, its jobs are shared out by land use. The ABS also adjusts every figure slightly to protect privacy.
Education
Cars per Dwelling
Council Rates
Households face an average residential rates bill of $2,002 a year through Ararat based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 73%
- Parks and recreation 17%
- Residential 5%
- Infrastructure and transport 3%
- Zones under 1% 2%
Zoning sets what may be built, not what is there today. A single address can sit in a different zone to the town around it — the property page shows the zone for one address.
Building Approvals: Ararat
In the year to August 2026, 56 new dwellings were approved across Ararat. That mix is 49 houses and 7 units. Approvals are up 80.0% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
The Registered Aboriginal Party for this area is Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation (appointed 2013).
Registered Aboriginal Parties are appointed by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 as the primary guardians, keepers and knowledge holders of Aboriginal cultural heritage for their area. They are the body to contact about cultural heritage here.
Climate & Setting
from Ararat Prison, 1.6 kmModerate rainfall — hot summers, cold winters with occasional frost.
- Elevation
- 304 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Annual rainfall
- 554 mm
- 89 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 27.5°C
- 12 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 4.0°C
- 19 frost days ≤ 0°C
Elevation is the ground at the town centre, from Geoscience Australia's National Digital Elevation Model. Approximate — it reads high in dense built-up areas. It is a measure of height above sea level and not an indicator of flood risk, which depends on height above nearby waterways.
Industrial Emissions Nearby
1 facility within 5 km- 1.7 kmMeat ProcessingTop reported: Ammonia (total) · Oxides of Nitrogen · Particulate Matter ≤10.0 µm (PM10)
EV adoption
In postcode 3377, 23 of 8,221 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 1.7% (140 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 2.0%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 3377, 1,562 rooftop-solar systems totalling 9.5 MW have been installed since 2001, against 4,060 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 58 went up in the last year.
Counts every system certified since 2001, so a roof re-fitted with a newer system is counted twice, and small commercial systems are included alongside houses — useful for comparing postcodes, not an estimate of how many homes have working panels today.
2026 covers part of the year only, to 2026-07.
First Home Owner Grant
FY2026-27$10,000 for new homes priced up to $750,000.
The separate First Home Buyer Duty Reduction (stamp-duty concession) runs alongside this grant.
3 first-home grants were paid in postcode 3377 in 2025-26, rank 155 of 298 Victorian postcodes. The most was 116, in 2001-02.
Grants on new and established homes; established homes stopped qualifying in mid-2013.
Mortgage repayments
Land transfer duty at the owner-occupier rate, and it excludes first home buyer concessions — those can cut it substantially or remove it entirely. Excludes legal, inspection and lender fees. Check with State Revenue Office Victoria
The First Home Owner Grant applies to newly built homes only, so it isn't available on an established purchase. A first home buyer building or buying new under $750,000 may qualify for $10,000 — see what qualifies with State Revenue Office Victoria.
At $425,000 this is under the $750,000 First Home Owner Grant cap. A first home buyer may qualify for $10,000 on a newly built home — check eligibility with State Revenue Office Victoria.
A deposit under 20% usually attracts Lenders Mortgage Insurance, which this doesn't include.
Principal and interest over 30 years, fixed rate. Excludes fees, offset, redraw and LMI. Default rate is the median comparison rate across 1788 advertised products as at 2026-10-27 — indicative only, and not an offer. Your rate depends on the lender, your deposit and your circumstances. Not financial advice.
Federal Electorate
Currently held by Dan Tehan Liberal
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Dan Tehan | 39.1% | 60.9% | -2.3 |
| 2022 | Dan Tehan | 40.9% | 59.1% | -1.1 |
| 2019 | Dan Tehan | 39.6% | 60.4% | +1.2 |
Results are per division — federal electoral boundaries are redrawn periodically, so the history reflects this division's past, not necessarily the exact town's voters across time.
State Electorate
Currently held by Martha Haylett Australian Labor Party - Victorian Branch
Next state election: 28 November 2026.
| Year | Winner | Won with | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Martha Haylett ALP | 53.0% | 53.0% | 47.0% |
| 2018 | Louise Staley LP | 50.0% | 50.0% | 50.0% |
| 2014 | Louise Staley LP | 50.8% | 49.2% | 50.8% |
Results are per district. Districts were last redrawn in 2021, so results from before then describe the district of that name, not necessarily this town's voters. Results: Victorian Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0.
Looking at a specific address in Ararat?
Every figure above is a town average, and an average smooths over the difference between a street of family homes and a block of flats. Look up one address and you get the census for the few hundred people around it, its own nearest schools and stops, and what the state has mapped for that block.
- The census for a few hundred neighbours, not all 8,500 residents
- Nearest and zoned schools, with the walk from that door
- Flood, bushfire and noise mapping, where the state publishes it
Free to look up. Subscribers see every section in full — $29/month.
Nearby suburbs
Compare Ararat to another suburb
Side-by-side stats for any other VIC suburb — type a name and pick one.
Or jump straight to a nearby comparison:
Common questions about Ararat
Is Ararat a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Ararat is high (85/100, ranked against other VIC suburbs on offences per resident). Offences against shops, venues and visitors are divided by the people who live here, so suburbs with large daytime or visitor populations rank higher than living there may feel.
What natural hazards affect Ararat?
Ararat has a moderate recorded bushfire history (51/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). No mapped flood overlay applies. These are town-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Ararat a good place to live?
Ararat has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (23/100), ranked against other VIC suburbs on school quality (25%), safety (25%), SEIFA socio-economic advantage (25%), walkability (15%) and CBD access (10%). Whether it suits you depends on what you weigh — each of those is on this page.
What is the population of Ararat?
Ararat, VIC had a population of 8,500 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Ararat, VIC?
The postcode for Ararat, VIC is 3377.
How far is Ararat from Melbourne?
Ararat is 207 km from Melbourne CBD by road, about 141 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Ararat?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Ararat was $63,232 a year. It is the most recent suburb-level income figure until 2026 Census results are released in 2027.
What is the median weekly rent in Ararat?
The median advertised rent in Ararat is $435 a week for houses (52 listings) and $350 a week for units (9 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Ararat?
The median age of residents in Ararat was 45 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Ararat at risk of bushfire?
Ararat has a moderate recorded bushfire history (51/100). The score comes from Geoscience Australia's historical bushfire boundaries, with planned burns excluded: the area of recorded fires touching the town relative to its size, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history. It records where fire has burned, not a bushfire-prone land designation, which your council's planning scheme sets.
How are the schools in Ararat?
There are 7 schools inside the Ararat boundary: 4 at and 2 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Ararat walkable?
Ararat scores 4/100 on the SuburbScan Walkability Score, making it very car-dependent. The score is a weighted average of public transport, schools, parks, supermarkets, GPs, pharmacies, childcare, and hospitals within walking distance.
What is the weather like in Ararat?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Ararat, Ararat Prison (1.6 km away), summer days average 27.5°C, winter nights 4°C, 554 mm of rain a year over 89 rainy days, and 12 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Ararat?
First-home buyers in VIC may be eligible for $10,000 towards new homes with a purchase price up to $750,000. The grant is administered by State Revenue Office Victoria; confirm current eligibility before signing a contract — state rules and amounts can change.
What council does Ararat belong to?
Ararat sits within the Ararat local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Ararat?
The average residential rates bill through Ararat is $2,002 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Ararat?
Across Ararat, 56 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's up 80.0% on the same period a year earlier. These are LGA-level totals — every suburb in the council shares the same figure.
Which federal electorate is Ararat in?
Ararat sits within the federal Division of Wannon, currently held by Dan Tehan (Liberal).
Search another suburb or address
Data freshness
- Census · 2021
- Median sale prices · Oct 2026
- For-sale & rental market · Oct 2026
- Council rates · FY 2024–25
- Building approvals · Aug 2026
- Schools · 2025
- Public transport · Oct 2026
- NBN connectivity · Dec 2025
- Crime · 2026
- Road crashes · 2021–2025
- Climate · 2006–2026
- Socio-economic (SEIFA) · 2021
- EV adoption · Jan 2025
- First Home Owner Grant · Sep 2026
- Federal electorate · 2025
- State electorate · 2022
- Amenities · Sep 2026
- Health & emergency facilities · Sep 2026
- Industrial emissions (NPI) · 2024/2025
- Coastal erosion · 1988–2025
- Aircraft noise · 2024
Vintages show when each source's data is from. See all data sources.
Was the information on this page useful to you?
Thanks! Anything we could improve?
We hate spam as much as you do — we'll never use your email for marketing, and we might not be able to reply to everyone.
Thanks for your feedback! 🙏
Information shown is provided as-is from Australian government and commercial data sources.
Always verify with the relevant authority before making property decisions.
See Data Sources and How We Calculate for details.