Parkes NSW 2870
Parkes is a town in New South Wales, 355 km from Sydney CBD, around 4 hours 55 minutes by car. Population is 11,324; the median age is 39 and the median household income is $72,852 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 $260 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,300. Parkes is characterised by high crime risk. Of 6 schools within the town boundary, 3 rank above the state average, and walkability is low.
Is Parkes a good town?
Parkes scores a C (32/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on schools and prices, weaker on transit, safety, and community.
Above the state average
6 schools · 3 above peer schools · Top 17% in NSW
Car-dependent
Walkability 0/100 · 354.6 km · 293 min drive to Sydney
More affordable than most
Median $470K · More affordable than 88% of NSW
High crime risk
Fire 47/100 · Crime 89/100
Highly disadvantaged
SEIFA decile 2/10 · median age 39 · 11,324 residents
Liveability Rating
32 / 100 · Ranked #1218 in NSWEach bar is Parkes'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 Parkes?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
32 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataParkes's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $470,000, roughly 15% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$470,000
Based on 235 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 40 days — median across 94 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 22 sales $384K
- 3 bed 122 sales $451K
- 4 bed 77 sales $600K
- 5 bed 7 sales $650K
Land
$270,000
Based on 12 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 84 days — median across 8 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Parkes are currently listed at around $495,000 on average. Based on 80 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$495K
80 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$350K
3 units listed in the last 6 months.
83 of the suburb's 4,278 dwellings (1.9%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Parkes rent for around $450 a week on average, based on 111 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
Houses
$450/wk
111 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
Units
$245/wk
6 units advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
117 rentals advertised against an estimated 1,301 rented homes (9.0%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $445/wk
- 56 bonds
- +33% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $315/wk
- 12 bonds
- +38% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2870 (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 2025130 Acceptable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 23% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2870.
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$450/week ($23,000 a year) on a $495,000 median
$245/week ($13,000 a year) on a $350,000 median
Based on a small sample (3 listings) — indicative only.
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 Parkes safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Parkes sits in the high band, with 1,430 incidents recorded in 2025 — up roughly 10% on the prior year.
1,430 offences
10.3% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202516 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 2 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.
Council Flood Studies
Parkes Shire Council has published 7 flood studies on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.
Schools
Six schools serve Parkes, and results are mixed — some outperforming peer-suburb schools, some below. Holy Family Parish School and Middleton Public School lead the pack.
- • 1,857 students across 6 schools (avg 310)
- • Sectors: 4 Government, 1 Catholic, 1 Independent
- • ICSEA 891-1014, median 922 (below the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: Parkes High School (467 students)
Primary
Secondary
Combined
Walkability
Parkes is very car-dependent on foot — at 0/100, nearly all errands require a car. Within the town there are 4 supermarkets, 32 parks and 4 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 Parkes.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 119.8 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 49.0 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.2 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 0 min
- Span of service
- 15.0 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 Parkes.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 43%
- Premises covered
- 6,149
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
Parkes: 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 31 small areas inside this town and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 7 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this town rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Parkes is home to about 11,300 residents, with a median age of 39, broadly in line with the national figure. Median household income runs at $73,000 a year, with unemployment at 4.9%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
11,324
Median Age
39
Median Household Income
$72,852/yr
Census Median Rent
$260/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,300/mo
Avg Household Size
2.4
Median Personal Income
$38,012/yr
Unemployment Rate
4.9%
Unoccupied Dwellings
13.2%
Total Dwellings
4,278
Owner-Occupier Rate
69.6%
Houses
88.3%
Rental Stress
18.6%
Mortgage Stress
21.4%
Work From Home
9.4%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
174 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 39 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 1,243 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 86.8%
- English Spoken at Home
- 89.7%
- Employment Rate
- 55.6%
- Completed Year 12
- 29.0%
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.
130 residents (1.1%) 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.
3.3% of residents (345) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (225).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 10,593 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 town against employed people who live here, 2021 Census.
About 4,376 people work here; 4,998 employed residents live here.
Roughly as many jobs as working residents (0.9 per resident). At least 12% of employed residents must work outside the town.
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 $1,146 a year through Parkes based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 78%
- Environmental 12%
- Other and special use 5%
- Residential 3%
- Infrastructure and transport 1%
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: Parkes
In the year to August 2026, 15 new dwellings were approved across Parkes. Almost all of the pipeline is detached houses. Approvals are down 100.0% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Peak Hill 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 Peak Hill Post Office, 42.6 kmModerate rainfall — very hot summers, cold winters with occasional frost.
- Elevation
- 342 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Near high-voltage lines
- 0.1% of addresses
- 7 within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more
- Annual rainfall
- 587 mm
- 61 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 33.4°C
- 41 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 5.5°C
- 5 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.
EV adoption
In postcode 2870, 16 of 10,008 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 2.5% (250 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 2.7%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2870, 2,706 rooftop-solar systems totalling 18.6 MW have been installed since 2001, against 5,145 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 120 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
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 $470,000 this is under 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 town's voters across time.
State Electorate
Currently held by Philip Donato Independent
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Philip Donato IND | 71.9% |
| 2019 | Philip Donato | 65.2% |
| 2015 | Andrew Gee NP | 71.7% |
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: © State of New South Wales through the NSW Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0, adapted.
Looking at a specific address in Parkes?
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 11,324 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
Manildra NSW 2865
Alectown NSW 2870
Cookamidgera NSW 2870
Goonumbla NSW 2870
Tichborne NSW 2870
Gunningbland NSW 2876
Compare Parkes 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 Parkes
Is Parkes a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Parkes is high (89/100, 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 Parkes?
Parkes has a moderate recorded bushfire history (47/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). These are town-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Parkes a good place to live?
Parkes has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (32/100), 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 Parkes?
Parkes, NSW had a population of 11,324 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Parkes, NSW?
The postcode for Parkes, NSW is 2870.
How far is Parkes from Sydney?
Parkes is 355 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 293 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Parkes?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Parkes was $72,852 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 Parkes?
The median advertised rent in Parkes is $450 a week for houses (111 listings) and $245 a week for units (6 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Parkes?
The median age of residents in Parkes was 39 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Parkes at risk of bushfire?
Parkes has a moderate recorded bushfire history (47/100). 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 Parkes?
There are 6 schools inside the Parkes boundary: 3 above, 2 at, and 1 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
What is the weather like in Parkes?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Parkes, Peak Hill Post Office (42.6 km away), summer days average 33.4°C, winter nights 5.5°C, 587 mm of rain a year over 61 rainy days, and 41 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Parkes?
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 Parkes belong to?
Parkes sits within the Parkes local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Parkes?
The average residential rates bill through Parkes is $1,146 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Parkes?
Across Parkes, 15 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 100.0% 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 Parkes in?
Parkes 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.