Kelso QLD 4815
Located in Queensland, Kelso sits 1,364 km from Brisbane CBD, around 15 hours 35 minutes by car. The suburb has 10,599 residents, a median age of 34, and a median household income of $84,552 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the bottom 20% nationally. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $300 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,496. Kelso is characterised by high crime risk. 1 school sits within the suburb boundary, and walkability is low.
Is Kelso a good suburb?
Kelso scores a D (20/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — weaker on safety and community.
Mixed results
1 school
Some car dependence
Walkability 32/100 · 1364.1 km · 934 min drive to Brisbane
Median available
Median $600K
High crime risk
Fire 54/100 · Crime 79/100
Highly disadvantaged
SEIFA decile 2/10 · median age 34 · 10,599 residents
Liveability Rating
20 / 100 · Ranked #1032 in QLDEach bar is Kelso's rank among QLD suburbs, from 0 to 100 (higher is better). Scored on 4 of 5 factors: no school data, so the other factors carry its weight.
Flood data for Queensland covers only the areas mapped there — a blank here is not an all-clear.
How do you rate the liveability in Kelso?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
20 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataKelso's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $600,000, roughly 20% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$600,000
Based on 324 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 24 days — median across 123 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 6 sales $478K
- 3 bed 180 sales $565K
- 4 bed 113 sales $665K
- 5 bed 16 sales $838K
- 6 bed 5 sales $1.1M
Land
$537,000
Based on 11 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 46 days — median across 4 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Kelso are currently listed at around $649,000 on average. Based on 97 houses listed in the past six months.
$649K
97 houses listed in the last 6 months.
99 of the suburb's 3,474 dwellings (2.8%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Kelso rent for around $560 a week on average, based on 72 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$560/wk
72 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
74 rentals advertised against an estimated 1,136 rented homes (6.5%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $540/wk
- 44 bonds
- +62% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies. 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 2025122 Acceptable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 25% of its income on the median rent in postcode 4815.
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$560/week ($29,000 a year) on a $649,000 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 Kelso safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Kelso sits in the high band, with 438 incidents recorded in 2025 — up roughly 28% on the prior year.
438 offences
27.7% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2020–202445 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 suburb carries people passing through; this is not a measure of risk to residents. Roads are listed with 3 or more serious crashes.
Schools
One school serve Kelso, and the cohort is trailing peer-suburb performance.
- • 303 students in one school (avg 303)
Primary
Walkability
Kelso is car-dependent on foot — at 32/100, most errands require a car.
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 Kelso.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 37.5 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 36.8 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 13.6 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 17.9 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 Kelso.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 49%
- Premises covered
- 4,171
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
Townsville: 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 26 small areas inside this suburb and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 7 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this suburb rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Kelso is home to about 10,600 residents, with a median age of 34, broadly in line with the national figure. Median household income runs at $85,000 a year, with unemployment at 6.6%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
10,599
Median Age
34
Median Household Income
$84,552/yr
Census Median Rent
$300/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,496/mo
Avg Household Size
2.8
Median Personal Income
$40,404/yr
Unemployment Rate
6.6%
Unoccupied Dwellings
8.0%
Total Dwellings
3,474
Owner-Occupier Rate
67.3%
Houses
97.9%
Rental Stress
18.5%
Mortgage Stress
21.2%
Work From Home
4.4%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
141 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 8 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 1,110 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 83.0%
- English Spoken at Home
- 87.1%
- Employment Rate
- 57.4%
- Completed Year 12
- 33.7%
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.
48 residents (0.5%) 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.
3.4% of residents (333) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Brisbane (156).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 9,916 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 678 people work here; 4,651 employed residents live here.
Mostly a place people commute from: 0.1 jobs per working resident. At least 85% of employed residents must work outside the suburb.
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 $1,810 a year through Townsville based on 2025 figures.
Building Approvals: Townsville
In the year to August 2026, 1,096 new dwellings were approved across Townsville. That mix is 991 houses and 105 units. Approvals are down 22.3% on the same period a year earlier.
New Homes Planned
New homes planned in this suburb: 416 to 1,320 homes
- Within 2 years 28 to 75 homes
- In 2 to 5 years 102 to 235 homes
- In 5 to 10 years 122 to 550 homes
- In 10 years or more 99 to 220 homes
- No timeframe set 65 to 240 homes
Land the Queensland Government's residential land supply study identifies for future housing (46 parcels), by when it expects lots to be registered. Yields are published in ranges, so these are too.
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
The Aboriginal party for this area is Gurambilbarra Wulgurukaba People.
Under Queensland's Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 the Aboriginal party for an area follows native title. A native title claim over this area is registered with the Federal Court.
Air Quality
MODERATEPM2.5 averaged 6 µg/m³ in 2025 — below Australia's NEPM annual standard (8 µg/m³), slightly above the stricter WHO guideline (5 µg/m³). 1 day exceeded the daily threshold of 25 µg/m³.
PM10 averaged 15.6 µg/m³ · NO₂ averaged 0.25 pphm. Days over the limit in 2025: PM10 1 · NO₂ 0.
From the North Ward (Townsville, North Queensland) monitoring station, 18.3 km away.
Climate & Setting
from Townsville Aero, 16.5 kmHigh rainfall — warm summers, mild winters.
- Elevation
- 29 m
- above sea level, at the suburb centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 18.0 km
- Near high-voltage lines
- 1.2% of addresses
- 53 within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more
- Annual rainfall
- 1,304 mm
- 65 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 31.8°C
- 5 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 15.0°C
- 0 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.
EV adoption
In postcode 4815, 50 of 15,751 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 1.8% (287 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 2.1%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 4815, 6,147 rooftop-solar systems totalling 36.7 MW have been installed since 2001, against 7,946 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 359 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$30,000 for new homes priced up to $750,000.
$30,000 for contracts signed on or after 20 November 2023, with no end date. IT DID NOT REVERT TO $15,000: the tier was due to end 30 June 2026 and the 2026-27 Queensland Budget (23 June 2026) continued it for contracts signed from 1 July 2026. This file carried a "due to revert" note until 2026-09-18 — it was never true, and a note predicting a change is not the same as a change. Cap is "less than $750,000" including land and contract variations — less than, not up to. New homes only: "There are no home owner grants for established homes."
Mortgage repayments
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 Queensland Revenue Office
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 $30,000 — see what qualifies with Queensland Revenue Office.
At $600,000 this is under the $750,000 First Home Owner Grant cap. A first home buyer may qualify for $30,000 on a newly built home — check eligibility with Queensland Revenue Office.
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 Phillip Thompson Liberal National Party of Queensland
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Phillip Thompson | 36.6% | 63.4% | -1.6 |
| 2022 | Phillip Thompson | 38.2% | 61.8% | +3.4 |
| 2019 | Phillip Thompson | 41.6% | 58.4% | +8.4 |
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 Natalie Marr Liberal National Party of Queensland
Next state election: 28 October 2028.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Natalie Marr LNP | 59.9% |
| 2020 | Aaron Harper ALP | 53.2% |
Results are per district. Districts were last redrawn in 2017, so results from before then describe the district of that name, not necessarily this suburb's voters. Results: Electoral Commission of Queensland.
Looking at a specific address in Kelso?
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 10,599 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.
Featured in
- #1 in Townsville suburbs where 3-bedroom house rents rose most
- #2 in Townsville suburbs with the most rooftop solar
- #5 in Townsville suburbs with the biggest house blocks
- #7 in Townsville suburbs with the fastest EV adoption growth
- #7 in Townsville suburbs with the highest EV adoption today
- #7 in Townsville suburbs where young families live
- #12 in Townsville suburbs with the largest non-religious population
- #13 in Townsville's highest-income suburbs
- #13 in Townsville suburbs with the best public transport
- #14 in Townsville suburbs where the most homes are owned outright
- #14 in Townsville's most owner-occupied suburbs
Nearby suburbs
Compare Kelso to another suburb
Side-by-side stats for any other QLD suburb — type a name and pick one.
Or jump straight to a nearby comparison:
Common questions about Kelso
Is Kelso a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Kelso is high (79/100, ranked against other QLD 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 Kelso?
Kelso has a moderate recorded bushfire history (54/100, 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 Kelso a good place to live?
Kelso has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (20/100), ranked against other QLD 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 Kelso?
Kelso, QLD had a population of 10,599 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Kelso, QLD?
The postcode for Kelso, QLD is 4815.
How far is Kelso from Brisbane?
Kelso is 1,364 km from Brisbane CBD by road, about 934 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Kelso?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Kelso was $84,552 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 Kelso?
The median advertised rent in Kelso is $560 a week for houses (72 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Kelso?
The median age of residents in Kelso was 34 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Kelso at risk of bushfire?
Kelso has a moderate recorded bushfire history (54/100). 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 Kelso?
There is 1 school inside the Kelso boundary: 1 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Kelso walkable?
Kelso scores 32/100 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 air quality in Kelso?
The nearest government air-quality monitoring station to Kelso (North Ward (Townsville, North Queensland)) recorded a 2025 annual mean PM2.5 of 6.0 µg/m³ and PM10 of 15.6 µg/m³. That puts Kelso below the Australian NEPM annual standard of 8 µg/m³ but above the stricter WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³.
What is the weather like in Kelso?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Kelso, Townsville Aero (16.5 km away), summer days average 31.8°C, winter nights 15°C, 1,304 mm of rain a year over 65 rainy days, and 5 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Kelso?
First-home buyers in QLD may be eligible for $30,000 towards new homes with a purchase price up to $750,000. The grant is administered by Queensland Revenue Office; confirm current eligibility before signing a contract — state rules and amounts can change.
What council does Kelso belong to?
Kelso sits within the Townsville local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Kelso?
The average residential rates bill through Townsville is $1,810 a year (2025). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Kelso?
Across Townsville, 1,096 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 22.3% 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 Kelso in?
Kelso sits within the federal Division of Herbert, currently held by Phillip Thompson (Liberal National Party of Queensland).
Search another suburb or address
Data freshness
- Census · 2021
- Median sale prices · Oct 2026
- For-sale & rental market · Oct 2026
- Council rates · FY 2025–26
- Building approvals · Aug 2026
- Schools · 2025
- Public transport · Oct 2026
- NBN connectivity · Dec 2025
- Crime · 2025
- Road crashes · 2020–2024
- Air quality · 2025
- Climate · 2006–2026
- Socio-economic (SEIFA) · 2021
- EV adoption · Jan 2025
- First Home Owner Grant · Sep 2026
- Federal electorate · 2025
- State electorate · 2024
- 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.