Located in Tasmania, Scamander sits 234 km from Hobart CBD, around 2 hours 55 minutes by car. The locality has 803 residents, a median age of 51, and a median household income of $47,320 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the bottom 20% nationally. The locality grew 25.9% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $273 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,200. Scamander is characterised by high bushfire risk. Walkability is low.
Is Scamander a good place to live?
Scamander scores a D (28/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — weaker on transit, safety, and community.
Car-dependent
Walkability 0/100 · 233.7 km · 175 min drive to Hobart
Median available
Median $585K
High bushfire risk
Fire 86/100
Highly disadvantaged
SEIFA decile 2/10 · median age 51 · 803 residents
Liveability Rating
28 / 100 · Ranked #184 in TASEach bar is Scamander's rank among TAS 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 crime data is published for Tasmania — a blank here means we hold no data, not that there is no risk.
Flood data for Tasmania covers only the areas mapped there — a blank here is not an all-clear.
How do you rate the liveability in Scamander?
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
Public listings dataScamander's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $585,000, about 5% above where it sat a year earlier.
$585,000
Based on 35 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 67 days — median across 13 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 11 sales $540K
- 3 bed 14 sales $572K
- 4 bed 6 sales $845K
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Scamander are currently listed at around $730,000 on average. Based on 13 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$730K
13 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$225K
3 units listed in the last 6 months.
16 of the suburb's 340 dwellings (4.7%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Scamander rent for around $460 a week on average, based on 7 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$460/wk
7 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
8 rentals advertised against an estimated 79 rented homes (10.1%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Sep 2025–Aug 2026- 3-bed houses
- $450/wk
- 10 bonds
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies. Asking rents above come from advertised listings.
Rental affordability
June quarter 2025115 Moderately unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 26% of its income on the median rent in postcode 7215.
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$460/week ($24,000 a year) on a $730,000 median
Based on a small sample (7 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.
Short-Stay Rentals
32 active Airbnb listings: 32 whole homes and 0 rooms. Whole homes are about 6.5% 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.
Crime in the Break O'Day council area
Crime recorded across the whole council area over the 12 months to Jul 2026, not in Scamander alone. Tasmania Police publish by council, not by suburb.
| Type | Count | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| All offences | 299 | 41.4 |
| Assault | 43 | 5.9 |
| Assault in a public place | 6 | 0.8 |
| Home burglary | 21 | 2.9 |
| Stolen vehicles | 12 | 1.7 |
| Robbery | 0 | 0.0 |
| Serious crime | 3 | 0.4 |
| Public order incidents | 200 | 27.7 |
| Family violence order breaches | 30 | 4.1 |
| Police family violence order breaches | 18 | 2.5 |
Rates use the council’s 7,230 residents. The latest month is preliminary and may be revised.
Serious Road Crashes
2021–2025No crash in Scamander killed anyone or put anyone in hospital in 2021–2025.
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.
Coastal Erosion
Shoreline Change Summary
1996–2023Nearest Eroding Coastline
- Distance
- 1.5 km
- Rate
- -0.26 m/yr
- Net Movement
- -6.2 m
- Certainty
- good
Data Quality
Schools
Walkability
Scamander 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.
NBN connectivity
The internet access technology available across NBN premises in Scamander.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 54%
- Premises covered
- 528
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
Break O'Day: 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
Scamander is home to 803 residents, with a median age of 51 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $47,000 a year, with unemployment at 6.8%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
803
Median Age
51
Median Household Income
$47,320/yr
Census Median Rent
$273/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,200/mo
Avg Household Size
2.1
Median Personal Income
$27,560/yr
Unemployment Rate
6.8%
Unoccupied Dwellings
43.8%
Total Dwellings
340
Owner-Occupier Rate
76.7%
Houses
91.5%
Rental Stress
30.0%
Mortgage Stress
30.4%
Work From Home
12.4%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 82.2%
- English Spoken at Home
- 91.5%
- Employment Rate
- 44.6%
- Completed Year 12
- 30.5%
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.
4 residents (0.5%) 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.
6.7% of residents (51) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Hobart (17).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 762 residents aged five and over. Areas are ABS statistical regions. Small counts are approximate: the ABS adjusts every figure slightly to protect privacy.
Age Distribution
Family & Household Composition
Commute to Work
1% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (3 of 304).
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 $1,738 a year through Break O'Day based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Environmental 56%
- Rural and farming 30%
- Residential 8%
- Parks and recreation 3%
- Infrastructure and transport 3%
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: Break O'Day
In the year to August 2026, 48 new dwellings were approved across Break O'Day. Almost all of the pipeline is detached houses.
Climate & Setting
from Bicheno (Council Depot), 45.9 kmModerate rainfall — mild summers, mild winters.
- Elevation
- 39 m
- above sea level, at the locality centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 1.3 km
- 2.3 km to a named beach
- Annual rainfall
- 660 mm
- 84 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 21.4°C
- 0 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 6.8°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 7215, 18 of 4,058 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 1.3% (52 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 1.7%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 7215, 867 rooftop-solar systems totalling 5.0 MW have been installed since 2001, against 2,971 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 63 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$20,000 for new homes.
$20,000 for transactions commencing 1 July 2026 - 30 June 2027. THE AMOUNT MOVES EVERY YEAR AND THE SRO PUBLISHES THE TABLE: $30,000 (FY2025-26), $10,000 (FY2024-25), $30,000 (Apr 2021 - Jun 2024). We held $10,000 until 2026-09-18, which was the FY2024-25 figure — two years stale, and wrong in both directions in between. Nothing is published beyond 30 June 2027, so this is due again then regardless of the 1 July sweep. No purchase-price cap is STATED on the eligibility pages (an absence, not an explicit "no cap"); the Grant Guideline PDF was not read. Eligible new builds include substantially renovated homes and kit homes. Completion within 24 months of the transaction start date, or the grant drops to $10,000. Separate from the grant: the first home buyer duty exemption on ESTABLISHED homes up to $750,000 closed for settlements after 30 June 2026.
Mortgage repayments
Property 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 of Tasmania
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 Rebecca White Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Rebecca White | 61.6% | 38.4% | +10.7 |
| 2022 | Brian Mitchell | 50.9% | 49.1% | +4.3 |
| 2019 | Brian Mitchell | 55.2% | 44.8% | -1.4 |
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
Elected at the 2025 election:
- Guy Barnett Liberal Party
- Jane Howlett Liberal Party
- Tabatha Badger Tasmanian Greens
- Jen Butler Australian Labor Party
- Brian Mitchell Australian Labor Party
- Mark Shelton Liberal Party
- Carlo Di Falco Shooters, Fishers, Farmers TAS
| Year | Seats won |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 Liberal Party · 2 Australian Labor Party · 1 Tasmanian Greens · 1 Shooters, Fishers, Farmers TAS |
| 2024 | 3 Liberal Party · 2 Australian Labor Party · 1 Jacqui Lambie Network · 1 Tasmanian Greens |
A vacancy here is filled by a recount of the original votes, not a by-election, so a member listed may since have been replaced. Results: Tasmanian Electoral Commission.
Looking at a specific address in Scamander?
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 803 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 Scamander to another suburb
Side-by-side stats for any other TAS suburb — type a name and pick one.
Or jump straight to a nearby comparison:
Common questions about Scamander
Is Scamander a safe place to live?
TAS does not publish suburb-level crime statistics, so there is no crime figure for Scamander.
What natural hazards affect Scamander?
Scamander has a high recorded bushfire history (86/100, 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 Scamander a good place to live?
Scamander has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (28/100), ranked against other TAS 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 Scamander?
Scamander, TAS had a population of 803 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Scamander, TAS?
The postcode for Scamander, TAS is 7215.
How far is Scamander from Hobart?
Scamander is 234 km from Hobart CBD by road, about 175 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Scamander?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Scamander was $47,320 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 Scamander?
The median advertised rent in Scamander is $460 a week for houses (7 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Scamander?
The median age of residents in Scamander was 51 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Scamander at risk of bushfire?
Scamander has a high recorded bushfire history (86/100). 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.
What is the weather like in Scamander?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Scamander, Bicheno (Council Depot) (45.9 km away), summer days average 21.4°C, winter nights 6.8°C, 660 mm of rain a year over 84 rainy days, and 0 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Scamander?
First-home buyers in TAS may be eligible for $20,000 towards new homes. The grant is administered by State Revenue Office of Tasmania; confirm current eligibility before signing a contract — state rules and amounts can change.
What council does Scamander belong to?
Scamander sits within the Break O'Day local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Scamander?
The average residential rates bill through Break O'Day is $1,738 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Scamander?
Across Break O'Day, 48 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). These are LGA-level totals — every suburb in the council shares the same figure.
Which federal electorate is Scamander in?
Scamander sits within the federal Division of Lyons, currently held by Rebecca White (Australian Labor Party).
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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
- NBN connectivity · Dec 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 · 2025
- 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.