Tenterfield NSW 2372
Tenterfield sits 709 km from Sydney CBD in New South Wales, around 8 hours 30 minutes by car. Census data records 4,067 residents with a median age of 55 and a median household income of $48,516 per year. On socioeconomic measures it sits in the bottom 20% nationally. The 2021 Census recorded a median rent of $250 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,192. The area shows high crime risk and high bushfire risk. Of 3 schools within the town boundary, 1 ranks above the state average, and walkability is low.
Is Tenterfield a good town?
Tenterfield scores a D (25/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on prices, weaker on transit, safety, and community.
Mixed results
3 schools · 1 above peer schools
Car-dependent
Walkability 4/100 · 709.2 km · 508 min drive to Sydney
Below the state median
Median $515K · Cheaper than 84% of NSW
High crime risk
Fire 69/100 · Crime 82/100
Highly disadvantaged
SEIFA decile 2/10 · median age 55 · 4,067 residents
Liveability Rating
25 / 100 · Ranked #1367 in NSWEach bar is Tenterfield'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 Tenterfield?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
25 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataTenterfield's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $515,000, roughly 13% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$515,000
Based on 83 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 65 days — median across 45 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 16 sales $430K
- 3 bed 45 sales $515K
- 4 bed 15 sales $620K
- 5 bed 5 sales $750K
Land
$325,000
Based on 37 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 68 days — median across 24 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Tenterfield are currently listed at around $640,000 on average. Based on 67 houses listed in the past six months.
$640K
67 houses listed in the last 6 months.
67 of the suburb's 1,755 dwellings (3.8%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Tenterfield rent for around $450 a week on average, based on 21 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
Houses
$450/wk
21 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
Units
$250/wk
5 units advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
26 rentals advertised against an estimated 407 rented homes (6.4%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $450/wk
- 22 bonds
- +38% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2372 (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 2025142 Acceptable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 21% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2372.
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 $640,000 median
Not enough unit sales and rentals in the window to calculate a yield.
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 Tenterfield safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Tenterfield sits in the high band, with 352 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 34% on the prior year.
352 offences
33.7% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202513 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 4 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
Tenterfield Shire Council has published 1 flood study on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.
Schools
Three schools serve Tenterfield, and results are mixed — some outperforming peer-suburb schools, some below. St Joseph's Primary School leads the pack.
- • 603 students across 3 schools (avg 201)
- • Sectors: 2 Government, 1 Catholic
- • ICSEA 865-1006, median 914 (below the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: Tenterfield High School (267 students)
Primary
Secondary
Walkability
Tenterfield is very car-dependent on foot — at 4/100, nearly all errands require a car. Within the town there are 2 supermarkets, 22 parks and 14 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 Tenterfield.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 37.8 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 17.4 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.1 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 0 min
- Span of service
- 14.8 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 Tenterfield.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 33%
- Premises covered
- 2,354
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
Tenterfield: 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 13 small areas inside this town and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 6 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this town rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Tenterfield is home to about 4,100 residents, with a median age of 55 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $49,000 a year, with unemployment at 5.7%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
4,067
Median Age
55
Median Household Income
$48,516/yr
Census Median Rent
$250/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,192/mo
Avg Household Size
2.1
Median Personal Income
$26,884/yr
Unemployment Rate
5.7%
Unoccupied Dwellings
16.7%
Total Dwellings
1,755
Owner-Occupier Rate
76.8%
Houses
93.7%
Rental Stress
26.8%
Mortgage Stress
29.5%
Work From Home
15.0%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
40 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 30 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 385 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 83.7%
- English Spoken at Home
- 89.7%
- Employment Rate
- 43.5%
- Completed Year 12
- 29.8%
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.
11 residents (0.3%) 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.
5.0% of residents (193) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Brisbane (120).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 3,887 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 1,434 people work here; 1,505 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 $922 a year through Tenterfield based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 97%
- Environmental 3%
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: Tenterfield
In the year to August 2026, 48 new dwellings were approved across Tenterfield. That mix is 46 houses and 2 units. Approvals are down 75.0% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Moombahlene 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 Tenterfield (Federation Park), 4.4 kmModerate rainfall — warm summers, frosty winters.
- Elevation
- 1,028 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Annual rainfall
- 798 mm
- 85 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 26.4°C
- 1 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 1.0°C
- 55 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 2372, 8 of 4,023 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 1.6% (63 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 1.8%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2372, 1,350 rooftop-solar systems totalling 8.2 MW have been installed since 2001, against 2,502 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 82 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 $515,000 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 Barnaby Joyce The Nationals
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Barnaby Joyce | 32.9% | 67.1% | -1.9 |
| 2022 | Barnaby Joyce | 33.6% | 66.4% | -1.2 |
| 2019 | Barnaby Joyce | 32.4% | 67.6% | +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 Janelle Saffin Labor
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Janelle Saffin ALP | 65.0% |
| 2019 | Janelle Saffin ALP | 51.4% |
| 2015 | Thomas George NP | 52.9% |
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 Tenterfield?
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 4,067 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 Tenterfield 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 Tenterfield
Is Tenterfield a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Tenterfield is high (82/100, 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 Tenterfield?
Tenterfield has a moderate recorded bushfire history (69/100, 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 Tenterfield a good place to live?
Tenterfield has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (25/100), 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 Tenterfield?
Tenterfield, NSW had a population of 4,067 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Tenterfield, NSW?
The postcode for Tenterfield, NSW is 2372.
How far is Tenterfield from Sydney?
Tenterfield is 709 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 508 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Tenterfield?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Tenterfield was $48,516 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 Tenterfield?
The median advertised rent in Tenterfield is $450 a week for houses (21 listings) and $250 a week for units (5 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Tenterfield?
The median age of residents in Tenterfield was 55 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Tenterfield at risk of bushfire?
Tenterfield has a moderate recorded bushfire history (69/100). 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 Tenterfield?
There are 3 schools inside the Tenterfield boundary: 1 above, 1 at, and 1 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Tenterfield walkable?
Tenterfield scores 4/100 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 Tenterfield?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Tenterfield, Tenterfield (Federation Park) (4.4 km away), summer days average 26.4°C, winter nights 1°C, 798 mm of rain a year over 85 rainy days, and 1 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Tenterfield?
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 Tenterfield belong to?
Tenterfield sits within the Tenterfield local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Tenterfield?
The average residential rates bill through Tenterfield is $922 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Tenterfield?
Across Tenterfield, 48 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 75.0% 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 Tenterfield in?
Tenterfield sits within the federal Division of New England, currently held by Barnaby Joyce (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.