Ballajura, WA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Ballajura is a residential suburb of Perth, about 14 kilometres north of the city centre and part of the City of Swan. Its story begins in 1905, when Ernest Maltby Kerruish, a migrant from the Isle of Man, took up farmland on the site and named it Ballajora after a farm at Maughold in his homeland; over time the spelling shifted to Ballajura. Kerruish found the soil too poor for his liking and soon moved his operations to a vineyard at nearby Caversham, but the names of his Manx companions, Creer and Eaton, are still remembered in the houses of the local primary school. The suburb as it stands today took shape in the 1980s, when the Lakeshore and Lakes Estate subdivisions were laid out around a series of landscaped lakes and parks, drawing a wave of new family homes.
Less advantaged than the national average
Ballajura is more socio-economically advantaged than about 30% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 951, where about 1000 is the national average).
A socio-economic measure from ABS Census data — not a measure of how good a suburb is to live in or visit. How we calculate this.
Is Ballajura a good place to live?
There’s no single answer — it depends on what matters to you. So instead of one mystery number, we break it down: a transparent score on each part of life we can back with public data, and an honest “not yet” on the parts we can’t.
Lower on the data we score
A weighted blend of the 2 components we can score for Ballajura from public data. It sits alongside — and reconciles with — the socio-economic Suburb Score above; it is a transparent read, not a complete verdict.
Socio-economic advantage
30/100Less advantaged than the national average
Less advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (30/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
32/100Less affordable than the national median
Median weekly rent was $350 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 32% of suburbs we can compare. Housing data only, no valuations. · ABS Census 2021
Not yet scored
We’d rather leave these open than publish a number we can’t stand behind. Here’s where each one stands.
- Amenities & accessNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap amenity mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- Green spaceNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap green-space mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- TransportNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap public-transport mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- SchoolsNot scored yet — school performance (ACARA / ICSEA) needs a data-reuse licence cleared before we can publish it.
- SafetyNot scored yet — Australia has no single open crime dataset and safety data carries defamation and legal care, so it is gated pending a go/no-go and will be data-only when added.
- CommunityNot scored yet — we won't reduce community to a number from a proxy. We'd rather leave it open than publish an invented value judgement.
A transparent read on public data, not a verdict — and not a measure of any person or community. See our methodology for how each component is worked out and why some aren’t scored yet.
Ballajura at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 18,459
- Median age
- 37
- Median weekly household income
- $1,726
- SEIFA score
- 951
- Local government area
- Swan
- Coordinates
- -31.8384, 115.8926
Map of Ballajura
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Ballajura
What it costs to live in Ballajura and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $350
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,703
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 80%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 18%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Ballajura demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Ballajura demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Ballajura using the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census; every percentage is a share of a clearly stated Census count, so each one traces back to the source. At a glance, the largest age group is mid-life (45–64) at 29% and 38% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 3,548 | 19% |
| Youth (15–24) | 2,616 | 14% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 4,597 | 25% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 5,305 | 29% |
| Seniors (65+) | 2,400 | 13% |
Share of the 18,466 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 1,855 | 30% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 3,084 | 50% |
| Rented | 1,110 | 18% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 5,830 | 94% |
| Townhouses & semis | 336 | 5% |
| Flats & apartments | 10 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 6,179 occupied private dwellings in Ballajura.
- Average household size
- 2.9 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,916
- Median weekly personal income
- $716
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 6,832 (38%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 5,624 (32%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 397 (2%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 7,790 (55%)
- Labour-force participation
- 65.5%
- Unemployment rate
- 6.2%
- Employed full-time
- 5,372
- Employed part-time
- 3,275
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 (General Community Profile, by Suburb and Locality). © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. How we group bands and derive each share is set out on our methodology page.
Weather and climate in Ballajura
Based on 2014–2023 records, the warmest month in Ballajura is January (average daytime high around 32.7°C) and the coolest is July (around 17°C). The area receives roughly 618 mm of rain across the year.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 32.7°C | 18.9°C | 25 mm |
| Feb | 32.2°C | 19°C | 21 mm |
| Mar | 29.6°C | 18°C | 36 mm |
| Apr | 25.2°C | 14.8°C | 43 mm |
| May | 21°C | 11.9°C | 66 mm |
| Jun | 18°C | 10.1°C | 87 mm |
| Jul | 17°C | 9.6°C | 118 mm |
| Aug | 17.6°C | 9.1°C | 101 mm |
| Sep | 19.7°C | 10°C | 50 mm |
| Oct | 23°C | 11.9°C | 37 mm |
| Nov | 27.2°C | 14.5°C | 26 mm |
| Dec | 31°C | 17.2°C | 8 mm |
Climate normals, 2014–2023 (Open-Meteo, ERA5 reanalysis).
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Common questions about Ballajura
Is Ballajura a good place to live?
Ballajura scores 30/100 (SEIFA 951, bottom 30% nationally) — 18th largest suburb in WA at 18,459 people, with median household income of $1,726 and 38% born overseas. It is a Swan LGA suburb with an Ellenbrook Line station (Ballajura Station opened 8 December 2024 as part of the Morley–Ellenbrook Line), ending years as a car-dependent outer suburb; the station is the single most significant change to Ballajura’s livability prospects in a generation. The score predates the rail connection, and how much that transport shift moves the needle in practice — in commute times, in access to work, in community confidence — is the open question for this verdict.
What is the median rent in Ballajura?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Ballajura was $350, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,703. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Ballajura?
Ballajura is a suburb of Western Australia, Australia, in the Swan local government area.
What is the population of Ballajura?
At the 2021 Census, Ballajura had a population of about 18,459.
Is Ballajura an advantaged area?
Ballajura has an ABS SEIFA score of 951, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 30 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 30% of Australian suburbs.
What is the weather like in Ballajura?
Ballajura has average daytime highs of about 24.5°C and overnight lows of about 13.7°C, with roughly 618 mm of rain across the year (based on 2014–2023 climate normals).
How big is Ballajura?
Ballajura is one of the most populous suburbs in Western Australia — the 10th-largest by usual resident population at the 2021 Census (about 18,459 usual residents).
Where Ballajura ranks
Ballajura appears in these data-driven guides — each a transparent sort on a single ABS figure shown on this page.
- Largest suburbs in Western Australia#10 of 25
Nearby suburbs in Western Australia
More suburb guides in Western Australia
Other hand-written, cited guides — browse all guides.