Pokolbin is a town in New South Wales, 166 km from Sydney CBD, around 2 hours 15 minutes by car. Population is 1,049; the median age is 57 and the median household income is $124,540 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the top 20% nationally. The town grew 9.2% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $600 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $2,550. Pokolbin is characterised by high aircraft noise risk and high crime risk. Walkability is low.
Is Pokolbin a good town?
Pokolbin scores a C (38/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on community, weaker on transit and safety.
Car-dependent
Walkability 0/100 · 165.6 km · 134 min drive to Sydney
Around the state median
Median $1.25M · Pricier than 83% of NSW
High crime risk
Fire 52/100 · Crime 90/100
Very advantaged
SEIFA decile 10/10 · median age 57 · 1,049 residents
Liveability Rating
38 / 100 · Ranked #1075 in NSWEach bar is Pokolbin'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 Pokolbin?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
38 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median Land Price
Public listings dataPokolbin's land market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $230,000, roughly 36% above where it sat a year earlier.
Land
$230,000
Based on 14 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 103 days — median across 7 sales that recorded a listing period
Houses
$1,250,000
Based on only 9 sales — small sample, take as indicative.
Typically sold in 146 days — median across 3 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Pokolbin are currently listed at around $1.25 million on average. Based on 31 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$1.25M
31 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$480K
4 units listed in the last 6 months — typical time on market 8 days.
35 of the suburb's 401 dwellings (8.7%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $610/wk
- 143 bonds
- +38% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $500/wk
- 14 bonds
- +37% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2320 (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 202590 Unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 33% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2320.
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 Pokolbin safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Pokolbin sits in the high band, with 122 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 19% on the prior year.
122 offences
18.7% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202520 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital
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
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
Unacceptable for residential
Significant impact — conditional building
Significant impact — conditional building
Moderate impact — noise insulation required
Noticeable aircraft noise
Schools
Walkability
Pokolbin is very car-dependent on foot — at 0/100, nearly all 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 Pokolbin.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 5.5 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 1.1 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.0 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 2 min
- Span of service
- 8.9 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 Pokolbin.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 20%
- Premises covered
- 1,310
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 town alone — this town's own population is in the census section above.
Socio-economic profile
The ABS scores 4 small areas inside this town and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 3 different deciles — a narrow range, so the average describes the town closely.
Pokolbin is home to about 1,000 residents, with a median age of 57 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $125,000 a year, with unemployment at 2.2%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
1,049
Median Age
57
Median Household Income
$124,540/yr
Census Median Rent
$600/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$2,550/mo
Avg Household Size
2.4
Median Personal Income
$54,340/yr
Unemployment Rate
2.2%
Unoccupied Dwellings
51.6%
Total Dwellings
401
Owner-Occupier Rate
89.0%
Houses
99.0%
Rental Stress
25.1%
Mortgage Stress
24.6%
Work From Home
52.0%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 75.2%
- English Spoken at Home
- 90.4%
- Employment Rate
- 58.9%
- Completed Year 12
- 56.1%
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.
19 residents (1.8%) 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.
17.9% of residents (183) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (167).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 1,022 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
5% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (25 of 546).
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 town against employed people who live here, 2021 Census.
About 1,910 people work here; 546 employed residents live here.
A jobs hub: 3.5 jobs for every working resident. At least 67% 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 96%
- Infrastructure and transport 4%
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: 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 22.6 µg/m³. Days over the limit in 2025: PM10 14.
From the Mount Thorley monitoring station, 20.2 km away.
Climate & Setting
from Cessnock Airport AWS, 6.1 kmModerate rainfall — hot summers, cold winters with occasional frost.
- Elevation
- 96 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 46.9 km
- Near high-voltage lines
- 2.0% of addresses
- 34 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 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.
Industrial Emissions Nearby
2 facilities within 5 km- 1.1 kmWine and Other Alcoholic Beverage ManufacturingTop reported: Ethanol · Total Volatile Organic Compounds
- 5.0 kmWine and Other Alcoholic Beverage ManufacturingTop reported: Ethanol · Total Volatile Organic Compounds
EV adoption
In postcode 2320, 187 of 34,368 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 3.4% (1,176 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 4.0%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2320, 8,346 rooftop-solar systems totalling 69.7 MW have been installed since 2001, against 14,845 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 625 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
16 mortgage brokers are registered in postcode 2320.
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 $230,000 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 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 town'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 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 Pokolbin?
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 1,049 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
Nearby suburbs
Cessnock NSW 2325
Nulkaba NSW 2325
Singleton Military Area NSW 2331
Broke NSW 2330
Lovedale NSW 2325
Belford NSW 2335
Compare Pokolbin 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 Pokolbin
Is Pokolbin a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Pokolbin is high (90/100, 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 Pokolbin?
Pokolbin has a moderate recorded bushfire history (52/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). Part of it sits inside an aircraft noise contour. These are town-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Pokolbin a good place to live?
Pokolbin has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (38/100), 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 Pokolbin?
Pokolbin, NSW had a population of 1,049 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Pokolbin, NSW?
The postcode for Pokolbin, NSW is 2320.
How far is Pokolbin from Sydney?
Pokolbin is 166 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 134 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Pokolbin?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Pokolbin was $124,540 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 Pokolbin?
There are too few current rental listings in Pokolbin for a reliable median. At the 2021 ABS Census the median weekly rent was $600, across all dwelling types.
What is the median age in Pokolbin?
The median age of residents in Pokolbin was 57 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Pokolbin at risk of bushfire?
Pokolbin has a moderate recorded bushfire history (52/100). 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.
What is the weather like in Pokolbin?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Pokolbin, Cessnock Airport AWS (6.1 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 Pokolbin?
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 Pokolbin belong to?
Pokolbin sits within the Cessnock local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Pokolbin?
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 Pokolbin?
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 Pokolbin in?
Pokolbin sits within the federal Division of Hunter, currently held by Dan Repacholi (Australian Labor Party).
Search another suburb or address
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
- 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.