Foster, VIC
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Foster is a small town in South Gippsland, Victoria, about 174 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, and the main service centre on the road to Wilsons Promontory. The surrounding district is dairy and grazing country, and the town is widely known as a gateway for visitors heading to 'the Prom', Victoria's best-loved coastal national park. Foster began in the 1870s as a drovers' camp called Stockyard Creek, and a modest gold rush followed the discovery of gold nearby in the 1880s. It was renamed in 1879, reportedly after the local police magistrate William Foster, who is said to have remarked that he could not hold court in a creek. The railway reached the town in 1892.
Less advantaged than the national average
Foster is more socio-economically advantaged than about 26% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 943, 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 Foster 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.
Below the national middle on the data we score
A weighted blend of the 2 components we can score for Foster 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
26/100Less advantaged than the national average
Less advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (26/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
65/100More affordable than the national median
Median weekly rent was $240 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 65% 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.
Foster at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 2,044
- Median age
- 59
- Median weekly household income
- $975
- SEIFA score
- 943
- Local government area
- South Gippsland
- Coordinates
- -38.6758, 146.2079
Map of Foster
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Foster
What it costs to live in Foster and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $240
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,348
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 74%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 20%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Foster demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Foster demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Foster 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 40% and 15% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 240 | 12% |
| Youth (15–24) | 149 | 7% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 280 | 14% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 560 | 27% |
| Seniors (65+) | 812 | 40% |
Share of the 2,041 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 493 | 55% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 174 | 19% |
| Rented | 176 | 20% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 784 | 88% |
| Townhouses & semis | 30 | 3% |
| Flats & apartments | 61 | 7% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 888 occupied private dwellings in Foster.
- Average household size
- 2 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,434
- Median weekly personal income
- $566
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 273 (15%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 94 (5%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 22 (1%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 709 (40%)
- Labour-force participation
- 42.6%
- Unemployment rate
- 3.6%
- Employed full-time
- 348
- Employed part-time
- 320
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 Foster
Is Foster 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, Foster rates 39/100 overall (Below the national middle 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 Foster?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Foster was $240, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,348. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Foster?
Foster is a suburb of Victoria, Australia, in the South Gippsland local government area.
What is the population of Foster?
At the 2021 Census, Foster had a population of about 2,044.
Is Foster an advantaged area?
Foster has an ABS SEIFA score of 943, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 26 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 26% of Australian suburbs.
Nearby suburbs in Victoria
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