Dubbo NSW 2830
Dubbo sits 403 km from Sydney CBD in New South Wales, around 5 hours 25 minutes by car. Census data records 43,516 residents with a median age of 35 and a median household income of $87,880 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the lower-middle tier nationally. The suburb grew 11.7% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $310 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,582. Dubbo is characterised by high crime risk. Of 24 schools within the suburb boundary, 8 rank above the state average, and walkability is low.
Is Dubbo a good suburb?
Dubbo scores a C (40/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on schools and prices, weaker on safety.
Above the state average
24 schools · 8 above peer schools
Some car dependence
Walkability 34/100 · 402.8 km · 324 min drive to Sydney
More affordable than most
Median $663K · More affordable than 84% of NSW
High crime risk
Fire 26/100 · Crime 91/100
Below-average income
SEIFA decile 4/10 · median age 35 · 43,516 residents
Liveability Rating
40 / 100 · Ranked #1021 in NSWEach bar is Dubbo's rank among NSW suburbs, from 0 to 100 (higher is better).
No flood data is published for New South Wales — a blank here means we hold no data, not that there is no risk.
How do you rate the liveability in Dubbo?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
40 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataDubbo's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $663,000, roughly 21% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$663,000
51% above its 3 neighbours (median $440,000)
Based on 801 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 24 days — median across 419 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 55 sales $500K
- 3 bed 330 sales $596K
- 4 bed 323 sales $747K
- 5 bed 48 sales $842K
Land
$558,000
Based on 37 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 37 days — median across 22 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Dubbo are currently listed at around $715,000 on average. Based on 375 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$715K
375 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$384K
12 units listed in the last 6 months.
387 of the suburb's 15,498 dwellings (2.5%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Dubbo rent for around $580 a week on average, based on 457 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
Houses
$580/wk
457 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
Units
$365/wk
51 units advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
508 rentals advertised against an estimated 5,440 rented homes (9.3%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $550/wk
- 186 bonds
- +47% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $400/wk
- 36 bonds
- +33% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2830 (NSW publishes bonds by postcode, which can cover several suburbs). Change since 2021 compares the median of the first four quarters with the last four. Asking rents above come from advertised listings.
Rental affordability
June quarter 2025114 Moderately unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 26% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2830.
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$580/week ($30,000 a year) on a $715,000 median
$365/week ($19,000 a year) on a $384,000 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 Dubbo safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Dubbo sits in the high band, with 5,763 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 10% on the prior year.
5,763 offences
10.4% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–2025112 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 8 of them fatal
Where they happened
Crashes are counted where they happened, so a main road through the suburb carries people passing through; this is not a measure of risk to residents. Roads are listed with 3 or more serious crashes.
Council Flood Studies
Dubbo Regional Council has published 5 flood studies on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.
Schools
24 schools serve Dubbo, and results are mixed — some outperforming peer-suburb schools, some below. Buninyong Public School and Burrabadine Christian Community School lead the pack.
- • 8,667 students across 22 schools (avg 394)
- • Sectors: 13 Government, 6 Independent, 5 Catholic
- • ICSEA 695-1072, median 920 (below the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: St Johns College Dubbo (941 students)
Primary
Secondary
Combined
Walkability
Dubbo is car-dependent on foot — at 34/100, most errands require a car. Within the suburb there are 6 supermarkets, 88 parks and 21 cafes to anchor that walking radius.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Dubbo.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 693.5 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 357.3 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 140.4 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 0 min
- Span of service
- 13.9 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 Dubbo.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 71%
- Premises covered
- 22,678
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
Dubbo: council population
The three add up to the change above. These are council-wide figures from the ABS, not figures for this suburb alone — this suburb's own population is in the census section above.
Socio-economic profile
The ABS scores 107 small areas inside this suburb and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 9 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this suburb rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Dubbo is home to about 43,500 residents, with a median age of 35, broadly in line with the national figure. Median household income runs at $88,000 a year, with unemployment at 3.3%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
43,516
Median Age
35
Median Household Income
$87,880/yr
Census Median Rent
$310/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,582/mo
Avg Household Size
2.5
Median Personal Income
$45,552/yr
Unemployment Rate
3.3%
Unoccupied Dwellings
6.9%
Total Dwellings
15,498
Owner-Occupier Rate
64.9%
Houses
83.2%
Rental Stress
18.3%
Mortgage Stress
21.6%
Work From Home
8.9%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
571 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 183 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 5,222 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 81.2%
- English Spoken at Home
- 82.7%
- Employment Rate
- 61.2%
- Completed Year 12
- 34.9%
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.
1,427 residents (3.3%) 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 (2,097) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (1,457).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 40,302 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
Local Jobs
People who work in this suburb against employed people who live here, 2021 Census.
About 21,849 people work here; 20,921 employed residents live here.
Roughly as many jobs as working residents (1.0 per resident). At least 4% 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 $1,233 a year through Dubbo based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 76%
- Residential 15%
- Infrastructure and transport 3%
- Environmental 3%
- Industrial 2%
- Parks and recreation 1%
Zoning sets what may be built, not what is there today. A single address can sit in a different zone to the suburb around it — the property page shows the zone for one address.
Building Approvals: Dubbo
In the year to August 2026, 405 new dwellings were approved across Dubbo. That mix is 271 houses and 134 units. Approvals are down 11.9% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Local Aboriginal Land Councils are statutory bodies under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983, responsible for land claims and land management for their members. Their boundaries are administrative and are not a statement of whose Country this is. NSW does not publish a register of Aboriginal parties by area — they are registered for each project.
Climate & Setting
from Dubbo Airport AWS, 6.9 kmModerate rainfall — very hot summers, cold winters with occasional frost.
- Elevation
- 260 m
- above sea level, at the suburb centre
- Near high-voltage lines
- 3.8% of addresses
- 960 within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more
- Annual rainfall
- 603 mm
- 59 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 32.9°C
- 36 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 3.5°C
- 22 frost days ≤ 0°C
Elevation is the ground at the suburb 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
3 facilities within 5 km- 4.0 kmPetroleum Product WholesalingTop reported: Total Volatile Organic Compounds · n-Hexane · Toluene (methylbenzene)
- 4.0 kmPetroleum Product WholesalingTop reported: n-Hexane · Toluene (methylbenzene) · Benzene
- 4.3 km
EV adoption
In postcode 2830, 105 of 36,898 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 4.0% (1,493 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 4.3%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2830, 12,322 rooftop-solar systems totalling 77.7 MW have been installed since 2001, against 17,078 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 474 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 $600,000.
Off-the-plan or contracted-build value cap is $750,000 (vs $600,000 for completed new homes). Stamp duty concessions are a separate scheme (First Home Buyers Assistance).
Mortgage repayments
21 mortgage brokers are registered in this suburb.
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 Revenue NSW
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 $600,000 may qualify for $10,000 — see what qualifies with Revenue NSW.
At $663,000 this is $63,000 above the $600,000 First Home Owner Grant cap. A first home buyer may qualify for $10,000 on a newly built home — check eligibility with Revenue NSW.
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 Jamie Chaffey The Nationals
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Jamie Chaffey | 37.0% | 63.0% | +5.2 |
| 2022 | Mark Coulton | 32.2% | 67.8% | +0.9 |
| 2019 | Mark Coulton | 33.1% | 66.9% | +1.8 |
Results are per division — federal electoral boundaries are redrawn periodically, so the history reflects this division's past, not necessarily the exact suburb's voters across time.
State Electorate
Currently held by Dugald Saunders The Nationals
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dugald Saunders NP | 68.6% |
| 2019 | Dugald Saunders NP | 52.0% |
| 2015 | Troy Grant NP | 70.4% |
Results are per district. Districts were last redrawn in 2021, so results from before then describe the district of that name, not necessarily this suburb's voters. Results: © State of New South Wales through the NSW Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0, adapted.
Looking at a specific address in Dubbo?
Every figure above is a suburb 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 43,516 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
Narromine NSW 2821
Wongarbon NSW 2831
Geurie NSW 2818
Tomingley NSW 2869
Terramungamine NSW 2830
Brocklehurst NSW 2830
Compare Dubbo to another suburb
Side-by-side stats for any other NSW suburb — type a name and pick one.
Or jump straight to a nearby comparison:
Common questions about Dubbo
Is Dubbo a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Dubbo is high (91/100, ranked against other NSW 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 Dubbo?
Dubbo has a low recorded bushfire history (26/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). These are suburb-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Dubbo a good place to live?
Dubbo has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (40/100), ranked against other NSW 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 Dubbo?
Dubbo, NSW had a population of 43,516 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Dubbo, NSW?
The postcode for Dubbo, NSW is 2830.
How far is Dubbo from Sydney?
Dubbo is 403 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 324 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Dubbo?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Dubbo was $87,880 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 Dubbo?
The median advertised rent in Dubbo is $580 a week for houses (457 listings) and $365 a week for units (51 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Dubbo?
The median age of residents in Dubbo was 35 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Dubbo at risk of bushfire?
Dubbo has a low recorded bushfire history (26/100). The score comes from Geoscience Australia's historical bushfire boundaries, with planned burns excluded: the area of recorded fires touching the suburb 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 Dubbo?
There are 24 schools inside the Dubbo boundary: 8 above, 8 at, and 2 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Dubbo walkable?
Dubbo scores 34/100 on the SuburbScan Walkability Score, making it 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 Dubbo?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Dubbo, Dubbo Airport AWS (6.9 km away), summer days average 32.9°C, winter nights 3.5°C, 603 mm of rain a year over 59 rainy days, and 36 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Dubbo?
First-home buyers in NSW may be eligible for $10,000 towards new homes with a purchase price up to $600,000. The grant is administered by Revenue NSW; confirm current eligibility before signing a contract — state rules and amounts can change.
What council does Dubbo belong to?
Dubbo sits within the Dubbo local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Dubbo?
The average residential rates bill through Dubbo is $1,233 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Dubbo?
Across Dubbo, 405 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 11.9% 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 Dubbo in?
Dubbo sits within the federal Division of Parkes, currently held by Jamie Chaffey (The Nationals).
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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 · 2025
- 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 · 2023
- 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.
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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.