Cowaramup, WA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Cowaramup is a small town in the South West of Western Australia, in the heart of the Margaret River wine region and about 13 kilometres north of Margaret River itself. It is the closest townsite to a string of well-known wineries and a short drive from the surf and swimming beaches of Cowaramup Bay. It lies on the traditional lands of the Wardandi people, and its name comes from the Wardandi word 'cowara', the purple-crowned lorikeet; despite the town's playful 'Cowtown' branding and its herd of life-size fibreglass cows, the name has nothing to do with cattle. The town was gazetted in 1925 and named after a nearby railway siding on the former Busselton-to-Augusta line.
More advantaged than the national average
Cowaramup is more socio-economically advantaged than about 72% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 1026, 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 Cowaramup 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.
Around the national middle
A weighted blend of the 2 components we can score for Cowaramup 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
72/100More advantaged than the national average
More advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (72/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
21/100Less affordable than the national median
Median weekly rent was $390 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 21% 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.
Cowaramup at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 2,482
- Median age
- 39
- Median weekly household income
- $1,925
- SEIFA score
- 1026
- Local government area
- Augusta Margaret River
- Coordinates
- -33.8590, 115.0829
Map of Cowaramup
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Cowaramup
What it costs to live in Cowaramup and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $390
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,950
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 79%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 17%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Cowaramup demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Cowaramup demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Cowaramup 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 young adults (25–44) at 29% and 20% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 654 | 26% |
| Youth (15–24) | 164 | 7% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 711 | 29% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 664 | 27% |
| Seniors (65+) | 282 | 11% |
Share of the 2,475 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 213 | 28% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 395 | 51% |
| Rented | 134 | 17% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 741 | 98% |
| Townhouses & semis | 16 | 2% |
| Flats & apartments | 0 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 757 occupied private dwellings in Cowaramup.
- Average household size
- 2.8 people
- Median weekly family income
- $2,128
- Median weekly personal income
- $876
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 441 (20%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 128 (6%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 29 (1%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 1,037 (59%)
- Labour-force participation
- 69.7%
- Unemployment rate
- 2.4%
- Employed full-time
- 618
- Employed part-time
- 523
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 Cowaramup
Is Cowaramup 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, Cowaramup rates 55/100 overall (Around the national middle). Public transport, schools and safety aren't scored yet — see our methodology for why.
What is the median rent in Cowaramup?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Cowaramup was $390, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,950. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Cowaramup?
Cowaramup is a suburb of Western Australia, Australia, in the Augusta Margaret River local government area.
What is the population of Cowaramup?
At the 2021 Census, Cowaramup had a population of about 2,482.
Is Cowaramup an advantaged area?
Cowaramup has an ABS SEIFA score of 1026, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 72 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 72% of Australian suburbs.
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