Lovedale is a rural locality in New South Wales, 176 km from Sydney CBD, around 2 hours 5 minutes by car. Population is 502; the median age is 50 and the median household income is $112,424 per year. On socioeconomic measures it sits in the top 20% nationally. Population grew 3.5% from 2016 to 2021. The 2021 Census recorded a median rent of $340 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $2,498. The area shows high crime risk. Walkability is low.
Is Lovedale a good place to live?
Lovedale scores a C (35/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on community, weaker on transit, prices, and safety.
Car-dependent
Walkability 8/100 · 176.4 km · 127 min drive to Sydney
Premium market
Median $2.17M · Pricier than 93% of NSW
High crime risk
Fire 44/100 · Crime 83/100
Very advantaged
SEIFA decile 9/10 · median age 50 · 502 residents
Liveability Rating
35 / 100 · Ranked #1141 in NSWEach bar is Lovedale's rank among NSW suburbs, from 0 to 100 (higher is better). Scored on 4 of 5 factors: no school data, so the other factors carry its weight.
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 Lovedale?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
35 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataThe median house sale price in Lovedale sits at $2.17 million, broadly flat year-on-year. That said, only four sales settled in the quarter, so the median is a noisy signal — treat it as a direction rather than a level.
$2,175,000
Based on only 4 sales — small sample, take as indicative.
Typically sold in 58 days — median across 3 sales that recorded a listing period
Rental Market
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $580/wk
- 93 bonds
- +43% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $485/wk
- 36 bonds
- +48% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2325 (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 2025105 Moderately unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 29% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2325.
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.
Is Lovedale safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Lovedale sits in the high band, with 42 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 48% on the prior year.
42 offences
47.5% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–20254 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital
Crashes are counted where they happened, so a main road through the locality 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
Cessnock City Council has published 8 flood studies on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.
- Black Creek Nulkaba to Branxton (Stage 2) Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan 2026
- Greta Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan 2025
- Greta Flood Study 2019
- Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan Report Cessnock City (Black Creek Stage 1) 2016
- Black Creek Flood Study: Nulkaba to Branxton (Stage 2) 2015
Aircraft Noise
ANEF Contour Details
Noticeable aircraft noise
Schools
Walkability
Lovedale is very car-dependent on foot — at 8/100, nearly all errands require a car.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Lovedale.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 7.8 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 5.7 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.0 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 8.7 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 Lovedale.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 1%
- Premises covered
- 264
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
Cessnock: council population
The three add up to the change above. These are council-wide figures from the ABS, not figures for this locality alone — this locality's own population is in the census section above.
Socio-economic profile
Lovedale is home to 502 residents, with a median age of 50 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $112,000 a year, with unemployment at 2.3%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
502
Median Age
50
Median Household Income
$112,424/yr
Census Median Rent
$340/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$2,498/mo
Avg Household Size
2.7
Median Personal Income
$47,788/yr
Unemployment Rate
2.3%
Unoccupied Dwellings
28.1%
Total Dwellings
171
Owner-Occupier Rate
85.6%
Houses
100.0%
Rental Stress
15.7%
Mortgage Stress
26.7%
Work From Home
36.3%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 80.7%
- English Spoken at Home
- 89.8%
- Employment Rate
- 61.1%
- Completed Year 12
- 43.6%
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.
7 residents (1.4%) 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.
Languages Spoken at Home
Top languages other than English, as a share of all residents.
Age Distribution
Family & Household Composition
Commute to Work
3% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (7 of 257).
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 locality against employed people who live here, 2021 Census.
About 599 people work here; 257 employed residents live here.
A jobs hub: 2.3 jobs for every working resident. At least 44% 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 $1,405 a year through Cessnock based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 80%
- Environmental 13%
- Infrastructure and transport 5%
- Residential 2%
Zoning sets what may be built, not what is there today. A single address can sit in a different zone to the locality around it — the property page shows the zone for one address.
Building Approvals: Cessnock
In the year to August 2026, 719 new dwellings were approved across Cessnock. That mix is 560 houses and 159 units. Approvals are down 31.1% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Mindaribba 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.
Air Quality
This station does not measure fine particles (PM2.5).
PM10 averaged 19.5 µg/m³. Days over the limit in 2025: PM10 6.
From the Singleton South monitoring station, 23.5 km away.
Climate & Setting
from Cessnock Airport AWS, 4.9 kmModerate rainfall — hot summers, cold winters with occasional frost.
- Elevation
- 51 m
- above sea level, at the locality centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 39.8 km
- Near high-voltage lines
- 6.5% of addresses
- 29 within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more
- Annual rainfall
- 804 mm
- 80 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 30.0°C
- 20 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 5.1°C
- 11 frost days ≤ 0°C
Elevation is the ground at the locality 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- 4.6 kmOther Non-Metallic Mineral Mining and QuarryingTop reported: Particulate Matter ≤10.0 µm (PM10) · Oxides of Nitrogen · Carbon monoxide
EV adoption
In postcode 2325, 86 of 24,360 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 2.0% (480 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 2.3%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2325, 6,158 rooftop-solar systems totalling 44.0 MW have been installed since 2001, against 12,075 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 521 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
4 mortgage brokers are registered in postcode 2325.
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 $2,175,000 this is $1,575,000 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 Dan Repacholi Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Dan Repacholi | 59.5% | 40.5% | +4.7 |
| 2022 | Dan Repacholi | 54.0% | 46.0% | -1.1 |
| 2019 | Joel Fitzgibbon | 53.0% | 47.0% | +9.5 |
Results are per division — federal electoral boundaries are redrawn periodically, so the history reflects this division's past, not necessarily the exact locality's voters across time.
State Electorate
Currently held by Clayton Barr Labor
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Clayton Barr ALP | 73.4% |
| 2019 | Clayton Barr ALP | 69.3% |
| 2015 | Clayton Barr ALP | 72.0% |
Results are per district. Districts were last redrawn in 2021, so results from before then describe the district of that name, not necessarily this locality's voters. Results: © State of New South Wales through the NSW Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0, adapted.
Looking at a specific address in Lovedale?
Every figure above is a locality 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 502 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
Cessnock NSW 2325
Greta NSW 2334
North Rothbury NSW 2335
Pokolbin NSW 2320
Nulkaba NSW 2325
Sawyers Gully NSW 2326
Compare Lovedale 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 Lovedale
Is Lovedale a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Lovedale is high (83/100, 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 Lovedale?
Lovedale has a moderate recorded bushfire history (44/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). Part of it sits inside an aircraft noise contour. These are locality-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Lovedale a good place to live?
Lovedale has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (35/100), 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 Lovedale?
Lovedale, NSW had a population of 502 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Lovedale, NSW?
The postcode for Lovedale, NSW is 2325.
How far is Lovedale from Sydney?
Lovedale is 176 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 127 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Lovedale?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Lovedale was $112,424 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 Lovedale?
There are too few current rental listings in Lovedale for a reliable median. At the 2021 ABS Census the median weekly rent was $340, across all dwelling types.
What is the median age in Lovedale?
The median age of residents in Lovedale was 50 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Lovedale at risk of bushfire?
Lovedale has a moderate recorded bushfire history (44/100). The score comes from Geoscience Australia's historical bushfire boundaries, with planned burns excluded: the area of recorded fires touching the locality 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.
Is Lovedale walkable?
Lovedale scores 8/100 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 Lovedale?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Lovedale, Cessnock Airport AWS (4.9 km away), summer days average 30°C, winter nights 5.1°C, 804 mm of rain a year over 80 rainy days, and 20 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Lovedale?
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 Lovedale belong to?
Lovedale sits within the Cessnock local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Lovedale?
The average residential rates bill through Cessnock is $1,405 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Lovedale?
Across Cessnock, 719 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 31.1% 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 Lovedale in?
Lovedale sits within the federal Division of Hunter, currently held by Dan Repacholi (Australian Labor Party).
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Data freshness
- Census · 2021
- Median sale prices · 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
- 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 · 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.