Dwellingup, WA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Dwellingup is a small timber town in the jarrah forest of the Darling Range, in Western Australia's Peel region about 100 kilometres south of Perth. Its name is said to come from an Aboriginal word for a place of nearby water. The town grew up around the forest and a timber railway after it was surveyed in 1909, and was almost wiped out in the 1961 bushfires, among the worst in the state's history, which destroyed scores of houses but, remarkably, took no lives; the community rebuilt. Today Dwellingup has reinvented itself as an outdoors hub: the long Bibbulmun walking track and Munda Biddi cycle trail both pass through, and the Hotham Valley Railway runs steam tours into the surrounding forest.
Less advantaged than the national average
Dwellingup is more socio-economically advantaged than about 23% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 935, 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 Dwellingup 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 Dwellingup 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
23/100Less advantaged than the national average
Less advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (23/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
53/100Around the national median for cost
Median weekly rent was $274 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 53% 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.
Dwellingup at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 524
- Median age
- 49
- Median weekly household income
- $1,343
- SEIFA score
- 935
- Local government area
- Murray
- Coordinates
- -32.7346, 116.0888
Map of Dwellingup
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Dwellingup
What it costs to live in Dwellingup and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $274
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,733
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 76%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 19%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Dwellingup demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Dwellingup demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Dwellingup 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 31% and 18% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 89 | 17% |
| Youth (15–24) | 32 | 6% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 105 | 20% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 158 | 31% |
| Seniors (65+) | 131 | 25% |
Share of the 515 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 77 | 41% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 65 | 35% |
| Rented | 36 | 19% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 193 | 100% |
| Townhouses & semis | 0 | 0% |
| Flats & apartments | 0 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 193 occupied private dwellings in Dwellingup.
- Average household size
- 2.4 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,833
- Median weekly personal income
- $632
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 84 (18%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 17 (4%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 18 (3%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 165 (40%)
- Labour-force participation
- 57.7%
- Unemployment rate
- 4.4%
- Employed full-time
- 128
- Employed part-time
- 80
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 Dwellingup
Is Dwellingup 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, Dwellingup rates 33/100 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 Dwellingup?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Dwellingup was $274, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,733. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Dwellingup?
Dwellingup is a suburb of Western Australia, Australia, in the Murray local government area.
What is the population of Dwellingup?
At the 2021 Census, Dwellingup had a population of about 524.
Is Dwellingup an advantaged area?
Dwellingup has an ABS SEIFA score of 935, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 23 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 23% of Australian suburbs.
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