Cobden, VIC
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Cobden is a town in the Western District of Victoria, about 200km southwest of Melbourne and 50km north of Port Campbell. It was named after Richard Cobden, a nineteenth-century English parliamentarian and free-trade campaigner. Dr Daniel Curdie settled in the area in 1840 and first called his property Lovely Banks; the town was surveyed in 1861, renamed Cobden, and a post office opened in 1867. A railway linking Camperdown, Cobden and Timboon operated from 1892 until 1987. Dairy farming dominates the surrounding district, and Cobden is home to one of Australia's largest milk-drying plants, run by Fonterra. The local Australian rules football club is a foundation member of the Hampden league.
Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs
Cobden is more socio-economically advantaged than about 12% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 900, 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 Cobden 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 Cobden 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
12/100Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs
Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (12/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
71/100More affordable than the national median
Median weekly rent was $220 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 71% 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.
Cobden at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 1,804
- Median age
- 51
- Median weekly household income
- $1,162
- SEIFA score
- 900
- Local government area
- Corangamite
- Coordinates
- -38.3315, 143.0836
Map of Cobden
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Cobden
What it costs to live in Cobden and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $220
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,083
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 76%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 20%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Cobden demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Cobden demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Cobden 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 seniors (65+) at 29% and 6% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 281 | 16% |
| Youth (15–24) | 177 | 10% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 318 | 18% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 505 | 28% |
| Seniors (65+) | 524 | 29% |
Share of the 1,805 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 344 | 47% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 209 | 29% |
| Rented | 148 | 20% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 674 | 92% |
| Townhouses & semis | 56 | 8% |
| Flats & apartments | 0 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 733 occupied private dwellings in Cobden.
- Average household size
- 2.3 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,517
- Median weekly personal income
- $631
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 104 (6%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 22 (1%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 36 (2%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 486 (33%)
- Labour-force participation
- 53%
- Unemployment rate
- 3%
- Employed full-time
- 440
- Employed part-time
- 273
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.
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Common questions about Cobden
Is Cobden a good place to live?
There's no single answer, so we score what the public data can back. On socio-economic advantage and housing affordability, Cobden rates 32/100 overall (Lower on the data we score). Public transport, schools and safety aren't scored yet — see our methodology for why.
What is the median rent in Cobden?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Cobden was $220, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,083. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Cobden?
Cobden is a suburb of Victoria, Australia, in the Corangamite local government area.
What is the population of Cobden?
At the 2021 Census, Cobden had a population of about 1,804.
Is Cobden an advantaged area?
Cobden has an ABS SEIFA score of 900, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 12 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 12% of Australian suburbs.
Nearby suburbs in Victoria
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