Port Fairy sits 290 km from Melbourne CBD in Victoria, around 3 hours 35 minutes by car. Census data records 3,742 residents with a median age of 51 and a median household income of $75,400 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the top 40% nationally. The town grew 12.0% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $300 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,733. Port Fairy is characterised by high flood risk. 2 schools sit within the town boundary, and walkability is low.
Is Port Fairy a good town?
Port Fairy scores a C (40/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on community, weaker on transit.
Mixed results
2 schools
Car-dependent
Walkability 10/100 · 290.4 km · 217 min drive to Melbourne
Around the state median
Median $850K
Moderate bushfire risk
Fire 40/100 · Crime 39/100 · Flood 63/100
Advantaged
SEIFA decile 8/10 · median age 51 · 3,742 residents
Liveability Rating
40 / 100 · Ranked #568 in VICEach bar is Port Fairy's rank among VIC suburbs, from 0 to 100 (higher is better). Scored on 4 of 5 factors: no school data, so the other factors carry its weight.
How do you rate the liveability in Port Fairy?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
40 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataPort Fairy's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $850,000, about 7% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$850,000
Based on 84 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 120 days — median across 40 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 14 sales $664K
- 3 bed 43 sales $858K
- 4 bed 22 sales $1.15M
Land
$900,000
Based on 11 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Port Fairy are currently listed at around $1.05 million on average. Based on 97 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$1.05M
97 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$715K
3 units listed in the last 6 months — typical time on market 82 days.
100 of the suburb's 1,455 dwellings (6.9%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Port Fairy rent for around $545 a week on average, based on 10 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$545/wk
10 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
12 rentals advertised against an estimated 301 rented homes (4.0%) in the last 6 months.
Rental affordability
June quarter 202598 Unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 31% of its income on the median rent in postcode 3284.
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$545/week ($28,000 a year) on a $1.05 million 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.
Short-Stay Rentals
257 active Airbnb listings: 244 whole homes and 13 rooms. Whole homes are about 11.2% of the town'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 Port Fairy safe? Crime statistics
2026Crime in Port Fairy sits in the low band, with 103 incidents recorded in 2026 — up roughly 17% on the prior year.
103 offences
17.0% since 2025Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202511 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 3 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.
Coastal Erosion
Shoreline Change Summary
1988–2025Nearest Eroding Coastline
- Distance
- 6.1 km
- Rate
- -0.56 m/yr
- Net Movement
- -25.1 m
- Certainty
- good
Data Quality
Schools
Two schools serve Port Fairy, and the cohort is trailing peer-suburb performance.
- • 332 students across 2 schools (avg 166)
- • Sectors: 1 Government, 1 Catholic
- • ICSEA 1055-1070, median 1062 (above the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: St Patrick's School (180 students)
Primary
Walkability
Port Fairy is very car-dependent on foot — at 10/100, nearly all errands require a car. Within the town there are 1 supermarket, 9 parks and 19 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 Port Fairy.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 6.0 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 7.7 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 5.8 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 17.6 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 Port Fairy.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 34%
- Premises covered
- 2,512
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
Moyne: 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 10 small areas inside this town and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 4 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this town rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Port Fairy is home to about 3,700 residents, with a median age of 51 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $75,000 a year, with unemployment at 2.7%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
3,742
Median Age
51
Median Household Income
$75,400/yr
Census Median Rent
$300/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,733/mo
Avg Household Size
2.3
Median Personal Income
$38,740/yr
Unemployment Rate
2.7%
Unoccupied Dwellings
49.8%
Total Dwellings
1,455
Owner-Occupier Rate
79.3%
Houses
90.0%
Rental Stress
20.7%
Mortgage Stress
27.6%
Work From Home
21.7%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
30 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 0 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 290 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 84.4%
- English Spoken at Home
- 91.4%
- Employment Rate
- 51.1%
- Completed Year 12
- 42.8%
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.
29 residents (0.8%) 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.
8.1% of residents (291) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Melbourne (237).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 3,572 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
1% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (16 of 1,581).
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 1,537 people work here; 1,581 employed residents live here.
Roughly as many jobs as working residents (1.0 per resident).
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 $1,613 a year through Moyne based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 92%
- Residential 4%
- Parks and recreation 2%
- Infrastructure and transport 1%
- Zones under 1% 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: Moyne
In the year to August 2026, 64 new dwellings were approved across Moyne. That mix is 59 houses and 5 units. Approvals are down 15.4% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
The Registered Aboriginal Party for this area is Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation (appointed 2013).
Registered Aboriginal Parties are appointed by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 as the primary guardians, keepers and knowledge holders of Aboriginal cultural heritage for their area. They are the body to contact about cultural heritage here.
Climate & Setting
from Port Fairy AWS, 7.8 kmModerate rainfall — warm summers, mild winters.
- Elevation
- 19 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 6.1 km
- Annual rainfall
- 699 mm
- 111 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 22.5°C
- 5 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 7.2°C
- 0 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
1 facility within 5 km- 4.0 kmSewerage and Drainage ServicesTop reported: Total Phosphorus · Total Nitrogen · Total Volatile Organic Compounds
EV adoption
In postcode 3284, 31 of 3,381 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 2.2% (73 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 3.1%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 3284, 565 rooftop-solar systems totalling 3.9 MW have been installed since 2001, against 2,230 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 37 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 $750,000.
The separate First Home Buyer Duty Reduction (stamp-duty concession) runs alongside this grant.
1 first-home grant was paid in postcode 3284 in 2025-26, rank 213 of 298 Victorian postcodes. The most was 19, in 2009-10.
Grants on new and established homes; established homes stopped qualifying in mid-2013.
Mortgage repayments
1 mortgage broker is registered in this town.
Land 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 State Revenue Office Victoria
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 $10,000 — see what qualifies with State Revenue Office Victoria.
At $850,000 this is $100,000 above the $750,000 First Home Owner Grant cap. A first home buyer may qualify for $10,000 on a newly built home — check eligibility with State Revenue Office Victoria.
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 Tehan Liberal
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Dan Tehan | 39.1% | 60.9% | -2.3 |
| 2022 | Dan Tehan | 40.9% | 59.1% | -1.1 |
| 2019 | Dan Tehan | 39.6% | 60.4% | +1.2 |
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 Roma Britnell Liberal
Next state election: 28 November 2026.
| Year | Winner | Won with | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Roma Britnell LP | 58.0% | 42.0% | 58.0% |
| 2018 | Roma Britnell LP | 52.3% | 47.7% | 52.3% |
| 2014 | Denis Napthine LP | 57.0% | 39.0% | 61.0% |
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: Victorian Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0.
Looking at a specific address in Port Fairy?
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 3,742 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
Compare Port Fairy to another suburb
Side-by-side stats for any other VIC suburb — type a name and pick one.
Or jump straight to a nearby comparison:
Common questions about Port Fairy
Is Port Fairy a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Port Fairy is low (39/100, ranked against other VIC suburbs on offences per resident).
What natural hazards affect Port Fairy?
Port Fairy has a moderate recorded bushfire history (40/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). Flood overlays cover a moderate share of it (63/100). These are town-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Port Fairy a good place to live?
Port Fairy has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (40/100), ranked against other VIC 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 Port Fairy?
Port Fairy, VIC had a population of 3,742 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Port Fairy, VIC?
The postcode for Port Fairy, VIC is 3284.
How far is Port Fairy from Melbourne?
Port Fairy is 290 km from Melbourne CBD by road, about 217 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Port Fairy?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Port Fairy was $75,400 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 Port Fairy?
The median advertised rent in Port Fairy is $545 a week for houses (10 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Port Fairy?
The median age of residents in Port Fairy was 51 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Port Fairy at risk of bushfire?
Port Fairy has a moderate recorded bushfire history (40/100). 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 Port Fairy?
There are 2 schools inside the Port Fairy boundary: 1 at and 1 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Port Fairy walkable?
Port Fairy scores 10/100 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 Port Fairy?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Port Fairy, Port Fairy AWS (7.8 km away), summer days average 22.5°C, winter nights 7.2°C, 699 mm of rain a year over 111 rainy days, and 5 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Port Fairy?
First-home buyers in VIC may be eligible for $10,000 towards new homes with a purchase price up to $750,000. The grant is administered by State Revenue Office Victoria; confirm current eligibility before signing a contract — state rules and amounts can change.
What council does Port Fairy belong to?
Port Fairy sits within the Moyne local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Port Fairy?
The average residential rates bill through Moyne is $1,613 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Port Fairy?
Across Moyne, 64 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 15.4% 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 Port Fairy in?
Port Fairy sits within the federal Division of Wannon, currently held by Dan Tehan (Liberal).
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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 · 2026
- 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 · 2022
- 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.