The Rock NSW 2655
Located in New South Wales, The Rock sits 487 km from Sydney CBD, around 5 hours 10 minutes by car. The town has 1,347 residents, a median age of 42, and a median household income of $70,616 per year. On socioeconomic measures it sits in the lower-middle tier nationally. Population grew 9.0% from 2016 to 2021. The 2021 Census recorded a median rent of $245 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,300. 1 school sits within the town boundary, and walkability is moderate.
Is The Rock a good town?
The Rock scores a C (46/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on transit and prices.
Mixed results
1 school
Very walkable
Walkability 67/100 · 486.7 km · 312 min drive to Sydney
More affordable than most
Median $455K · More affordable than 89% of NSW
Moderate crime risk
Fire 19/100 · Crime 54/100
Below-average income
SEIFA decile 3/10 · median age 42 · 1,347 residents
Liveability Rating
46 / 100 · Ranked #840 in NSWEach bar is The Rock'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 The Rock?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
46 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataThe Rock's house market is moving lower: the median sale price reached $455,000, roughly 20% below where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$455,000
Based on 21 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 54 days — median across 12 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 3 bed 15 sales $440K
Land
$294,950
Based on only 6 sales — small sample, take as indicative.
Typically sold in 68 days — median across 4 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in The Rock are currently listed at around $615,000 on average. Based on 5 houses listed in the past six months.
$615K
5 houses listed in the last 6 months.
5 of the suburb's 472 dwellings (1.1%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in The Rock rent for around $540 a week on average, based on 3 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$540/wk
3 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
3 rentals advertised against an estimated 71 rented homes (4.2%) in the last 6 months.
Gross rental yield
Indicative$540/week ($28,000 a year) on a $615,000 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 The Rock safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in The Rock sits in the moderate band, with 48 incidents recorded in 2025 — up about 9% on the prior year.
48 offences
9.1% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202511 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
Lockhart Shire Council has published 5 flood studies on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.
Schools
One school serve The Rock, and performance is broadly on par with peer-suburb schools.
- • 169 students in one school (avg 169)
Combined
Walkability
The Rock is somewhat walkable on foot — at 67/100, a short cluster of errands work on foot but most trips still benefit from a car.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside The Rock.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 9.2 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 3.7 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.2 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 19.9 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 The Rock.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 0%
- Premises covered
- 558
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
Lockhart: 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 5 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.
The Rock is home to about 1,300 residents, with a median age of 42, a touch above the national 38. Median household income runs at $71,000 a year, with unemployment at 2.5%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
1,347
Median Age
42
Median Household Income
$70,616/yr
Census Median Rent
$245/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,300/mo
Avg Household Size
2.6
Median Personal Income
$33,072/yr
Unemployment Rate
2.5%
Unoccupied Dwellings
6.4%
Total Dwellings
472
Owner-Occupier Rate
85.0%
Houses
97.7%
Rental Stress
18.0%
Mortgage Stress
22.1%
Work From Home
14.2%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 88.7%
- English Spoken at Home
- 92.4%
- Employment Rate
- 52.4%
- Completed Year 12
- 27.7%
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.
13 residents (1.0%) 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.
2.6% of residents (32) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (20).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 1,247 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 (3 of 544).
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 232 people work here; 544 employed residents live here.
Mostly a place people commute from: 0.4 jobs per working resident. At least 55% 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 $394 a year through Lockhart based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 96%
- Environmental 1%
- Residential 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: Lockhart
In the year to August 2026, 7 new dwellings were approved across Lockhart. Almost all of the pipeline is detached houses. Approvals are down 33.3% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Wagga Wagga 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
MODERATEPM2.5 averaged 7.7 µg/m³ in 2025 — below Australia's NEPM annual standard (8 µg/m³), slightly above the stricter WHO guideline (5 µg/m³). 7 days exceeded the daily threshold of 25 µg/m³.
PM10 averaged 23.1 µg/m³. Days over the limit in 2025: PM10 14 · ozone 0.
From the Wagga Wagga North monitoring station, 28.7 km away.
Climate & Setting
from Wagga Wagga AMO, 33.2 kmModerate rainfall — hot summers, cold winters with occasional frost.
- Elevation
- 217 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Near high-voltage lines
- 0.7% of addresses
- 6 within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more
- Annual rainfall
- 565 mm
- 67 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 31.8°C
- 26 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 3.4°C
- 24 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 2655, 0 of 1,268 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 1.0% (13 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 1.0%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2655, 366 rooftop-solar systems totalling 2.4 MW have been installed since 2001, against 520 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 20 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 $455,000 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 Michael Mccormack The Nationals
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Michael Mccormack | 37.4% | 62.6% | -2.9 |
| 2022 | Michael Mccormack | 35.1% | 64.8% | -4.6 |
| 2019 | Michael Mccormack | 30.5% | 69.5% | +3.0 |
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 Joe McGirr Independent
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Joe McGirr IND | 72.4% |
| 2019 | Joe McGirr IND | 65.5% |
| 2015 | Daryl Maguire LP | 62.9% |
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 The Rock?
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 1,347 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 The Rock 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 The Rock
Is The Rock a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in The Rock is moderate (54/100, ranked against other NSW suburbs on offences per resident).
What natural hazards affect The Rock?
The Rock has a low recorded bushfire history (19/100, 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 The Rock a good place to live?
The Rock has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (46/100), 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 The Rock?
The Rock, NSW had a population of 1,347 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for The Rock, NSW?
The postcode for The Rock, NSW is 2655.
How far is The Rock from Sydney?
The Rock is 487 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 312 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in The Rock?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in The Rock was $70,616 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 The Rock?
The median advertised rent in The Rock is $540 a week for houses (3 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in The Rock?
The median age of residents in The Rock was 42 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is The Rock at risk of bushfire?
The Rock has a low recorded bushfire history (19/100). 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 The Rock?
There is 1 school inside the The Rock boundary: 1 at similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is The Rock walkable?
The Rock scores 67/100 on the SuburbScan Walkability Score, making it somewhat walkable. The score is a weighted average of public transport, schools, parks, supermarkets, GPs, pharmacies, childcare, and hospitals within walking distance.
What is the air quality in The Rock?
The nearest government air-quality monitoring station to The Rock (Wagga Wagga North) recorded a 2025 annual mean PM2.5 of 7.7 µg/m³ and PM10 of 23.1 µg/m³. That puts The Rock below the Australian NEPM annual standard of 8 µg/m³ but above the stricter WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³.
What is the weather like in The Rock?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to The Rock, Wagga Wagga AMO (33.2 km away), summer days average 31.8°C, winter nights 3.4°C, 565 mm of rain a year over 67 rainy days, and 26 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in The Rock?
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 The Rock belong to?
The Rock sits within the Lockhart local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in The Rock?
The average residential rates bill through Lockhart is $394 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near The Rock?
Across Lockhart, 7 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 33.3% 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 The Rock in?
The Rock sits within the federal Division of Riverina, currently held by Michael Mccormack (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
- 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.