Main Arm NSW 2482
Main Arm sits 772 km from Sydney CBD in New South Wales, around 8 hours 20 minutes by car. Census data records 640 residents with a median age of 45 and a median household income of $72,956 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the middle range nationally. The locality grew 9.2% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $450 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,733. Main Arm is characterised by high bushfire risk. Walkability is low.
Is Main Arm a good place to live?
Main Arm scores a D (28/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — weaker on transit and prices.
Car-dependent
Walkability 16/100 · 772.4 km · 499 min drive to Sydney
Above the state median
Median $2.05M · Less affordable than 94% of NSW
Moderate bushfire risk
Fire 60/100 · Crime 58/100
Mid-range socio-economic
SEIFA decile 6/10 · median age 45 · 640 residents
Liveability Rating
28 / 100 · Ranked #1306 in NSWEach bar is Main Arm'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 Main Arm?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
28 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Q4 2025Main Arm's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $2.05 million in the December 2025 quarter, roughly 84% above where it sat a year earlier. That said, only two sales settled in the quarter, so the median is a noisy signal — treat it as a direction rather than a level. Zoom out: prices have climbed roughly 164% over the past decade — 10.2% per year on average.
$2,050,000
Based on only 2 sales — small sample, take as indicative.
Rental Market
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $950/wk
- 23 bonds
- +28% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2482 (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 202575 Severely unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 40% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2482.
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.
Short-Stay Rentals
8 active Airbnb listings: 8 whole homes and 0 rooms. Whole homes are about 4.1% of the locality's homes.
Airbnb only, as at Jun 2026; other platforms are not included. Active means reviewed in the past 12 months. The share is against private dwellings at the 2021 Census.
Is Main Arm safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Main Arm sits in the moderate band, with 27 incidents recorded in 2025 — up roughly 93% on the prior year.
27 offences
92.9% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–20252 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
Byron Shire 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
Walkability
Main Arm is very car-dependent on foot — at 16/100, nearly all errands require a car.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Main Arm.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 5.8 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 2.4 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.0 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 8.0 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 Main Arm.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 0%
- Premises covered
- 222
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
Byron: 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
Main Arm is home to 640 residents, with a median age of 45, a touch above the national 38. Median household income runs at $73,000 a year, with unemployment at 4.5%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
640
Median Age
45
Median Household Income
$72,956/yr
Census Median Rent
$450/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,733/mo
Avg Household Size
2.8
Median Personal Income
$32,656/yr
Unemployment Rate
4.5%
Unoccupied Dwellings
7.9%
Total Dwellings
177
Owner-Occupier Rate
80.0%
Houses
96.6%
Rental Stress
32.1%
Mortgage Stress
28.5%
Work From Home
28.0%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 61.4%
- English Spoken at Home
- 69.8%
- Employment Rate
- 47.6%
- Completed Year 12
- 39.2%
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.
17 residents (2.7%) 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.
8.8% of residents (54) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (35).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 611 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
2% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (4 of 254).
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.
Education
Cars per Dwelling
Council Rates
Households face an average residential rates bill of $1,577 a year through Byron based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 69%
- Environmental 26%
- Other and special use 6%
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: Byron
In the year to August 2026, 129 new dwellings were approved across Byron. That mix is 109 houses and 20 units. Approvals are down 65.4% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Tweed Byron 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 Murwillumbah (Bray Park), 20.2 kmHigh rainfall — warm summers, mild winters.
- Elevation
- 32 m
- above sea level, at the locality centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 11.2 km
- Annual rainfall
- 1,569 mm
- 108 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 29.1°C
- 4 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 9.1°C
- 0 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.
EV adoption
In postcode 2482, 96 of 6,381 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 2.7% (171 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 4.2%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2482, 2,418 rooftop-solar systems totalling 14.8 MW have been installed since 2001, against 2,706 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 182 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
Q4-2025 median4 mortgage brokers are registered in postcode 2482.
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 $2,050,000 this is $1,450,000 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 Justine Elliot Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Justine Elliot | 60.0% | 40.0% | +1.8 |
| 2022 | Justine Elliot | 58.2% | 41.8% | -4.2 |
| 2019 | Justine Elliot | 54.1% | 45.9% | -0.1 |
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 Tamara Smith The Greens
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Tamara Smith GRN | 57.7% |
| 2019 | Tamara Smith GRN | 55.4% |
| 2015 | Tamara Smith GRN | 53.1% |
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 Main Arm?
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 640 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
Mullumbimby NSW 2482
Mullumbimby Creek NSW 2482
Upper Burringbar NSW 2483
Upper Main Arm NSW 2482
The Pocket NSW 2483
Middle Pocket NSW 2483
Compare Main Arm 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 Main Arm
Is Main Arm a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Main Arm is moderate (58/100, ranked against other NSW suburbs on offences per resident).
What natural hazards affect Main Arm?
Main Arm has a moderate recorded bushfire history (60/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). These are locality-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Main Arm a good place to live?
Main Arm has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (28/100), 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 Main Arm?
Main Arm, NSW had a population of 640 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Main Arm, NSW?
The postcode for Main Arm, NSW is 2482.
How far is Main Arm from Sydney?
Main Arm is 772 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 499 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Main Arm?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Main Arm was $72,956 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 Main Arm?
There are too few current rental listings in Main Arm for a reliable median. At the 2021 ABS Census the median weekly rent was $450, across all dwelling types.
What is the median age in Main Arm?
The median age of residents in Main Arm was 45 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Main Arm at risk of bushfire?
Main Arm has a moderate recorded bushfire history (60/100). 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 Main Arm walkable?
Main Arm scores 16/100 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 Main Arm?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Main Arm, Murwillumbah (Bray Park) (20.2 km away), summer days average 29.1°C, winter nights 9.1°C, 1,569 mm of rain a year over 108 rainy days, and 4 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
What is the median house price in Main Arm?
The median sale price for houses in Main Arm was $2,050,000 in the Q4 2025 quarter, based on a small sample of 2 sales — take as indicative.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Main Arm?
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 Main Arm belong to?
Main Arm sits within the Byron local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Main Arm?
The average residential rates bill through Byron is $1,577 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Main Arm?
Across Byron, 129 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 65.4% 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 Main Arm in?
Main Arm sits within the federal Division of Richmond, currently held by Justine Elliot (Australian Labor Party).
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Data freshness
- Census · 2021
- Median sale prices · Q4 2025
- 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
- Short-stay rentals · Jun 2026
- 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.