Jamestown, SA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Jamestown sits in the Mid North of South Australia, on Belalie Creek about 200 kilometres north of Adelaide. It was surveyed in 1871 and named after Sir James Fergusson, the colony's governor at the time, with its streets honouring Scottish towns in a nod to his heritage. Grain, legumes, wool and timber have long underpinned the district, and just to the south lies Bundaleer Forest, planted from 1876 and often described as the world's first plantation forest. The town remembers the bushman and bootmaker R. M. Williams with a monument, and a short distance away the Hornsdale Power Reserve, a giant battery built with Tesla in 2017, feeds the state's electricity grid. The Crystal Brook to Broken Hill railway still runs through town.
Less advantaged than the national average
Jamestown is more socio-economically advantaged than about 35% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 962, 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 Jamestown 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 Jamestown 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
35/100Less advantaged than the national average
Less advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (35/100) 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 $215 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.
Jamestown at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 1,549
- Median age
- 49
- Median weekly household income
- $1,214
- SEIFA score
- 962
- Local government area
- Northern Areas
- Coordinates
- -33.1667, 138.5876
Map of Jamestown
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Jamestown
What it costs to live in Jamestown and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $215
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $982
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 77%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 19%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Jamestown demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Jamestown demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Jamestown 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 27% and 6% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 261 | 17% |
| Youth (15–24) | 143 | 9% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 308 | 20% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 419 | 27% |
| Seniors (65+) | 423 | 27% |
Share of the 1,554 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 303 | 45% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 216 | 32% |
| Rented | 129 | 19% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 648 | 97% |
| Townhouses & semis | 18 | 3% |
| Flats & apartments | 0 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 670 occupied private dwellings in Jamestown.
- Average household size
- 2.1 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,680
- Median weekly personal income
- $730
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 93 (6%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 30 (2%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 37 (2%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 534 (43%)
- Labour-force participation
- 59.2%
- Unemployment rate
- 1.8%
- Employed full-time
- 442
- Employed part-time
- 267
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 Jamestown
Is Jamestown 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, Jamestown rates 47/100 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 Jamestown?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Jamestown was $215, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $982. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Jamestown?
Jamestown is a suburb of South Australia, Australia, in the Northern Areas local government area.
What is the population of Jamestown?
At the 2021 Census, Jamestown had a population of about 1,549.
Is Jamestown an advantaged area?
Jamestown has an ABS SEIFA score of 962, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 35 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 35% of Australian suburbs.
Nearby suburbs in South Australia
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