Port Fairy, VIC
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Port Fairy stands where the Moyne River meets the Southern Ocean on Victoria's south-west coast, about 290 kilometres west of Melbourne. The Eastern Maar people are recognised as the traditional owners of the area. A whaling and sealing port from the 1830s, it was laid out in the 1840s as Belfast by the Irish-born landowner James Atkinson, and only went back to the name Port Fairy — said to come from a cutter called the Fairy — in 1887. One of the best-preserved early ports in the state, it keeps dozens of National Trust-listed cottages and inns. A lighthouse stands on Griffiths Island, home to a muttonbird colony, and the town fills each March for the Port Fairy Folk Festival, held since 1977.
More advantaged than the national average
Port Fairy is more socio-economically advantaged than about 71% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 1025, 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 Port Fairy 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 Port Fairy 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
71/100More advantaged than the national average
More advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (71/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
47/100Around the national median for cost
Median weekly rent was $300 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 47% 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.
Port Fairy at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 3,742
- Median age
- 51
- Median weekly household income
- $1,450
- SEIFA score
- 1025
- Local government area
- Moyne
- Coordinates
- -38.3227, 142.1695
Map of Port Fairy
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Port Fairy
What it costs to live in Port Fairy and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $300
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,733
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 77%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 20%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Port Fairy demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Port Fairy demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Port Fairy 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 32% and 9% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 648 | 17% |
| Youth (15–24) | 275 | 7% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 689 | 18% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 940 | 25% |
| Seniors (65+) | 1,195 | 32% |
Share of the 3,747 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 723 | 50% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 387 | 27% |
| Rented | 290 | 20% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 1,309 | 90% |
| Townhouses & semis | 125 | 9% |
| Flats & apartments | 4 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 1,450 occupied private dwellings in Port Fairy.
- Average household size
- 2.3 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,942
- Median weekly personal income
- $745
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 303 (9%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 77 (2%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 44 (1%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 1,598 (54%)
- Labour-force participation
- 52.6%
- Unemployment rate
- 2.8%
- Employed full-time
- 782
- Employed part-time
- 634
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 Port Fairy
Is Port Fairy 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, Port Fairy rates 63/100 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 Port Fairy?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Port Fairy was $300, 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 Port Fairy?
Port Fairy is a suburb of Victoria, Australia, in the Moyne local government area.
What is the population of Port Fairy?
At the 2021 Census, Port Fairy had a population of about 3,742.
Is Port Fairy an advantaged area?
Port Fairy has an ABS SEIFA score of 1025, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 71 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 71% of Australian suburbs.
Nearby suburbs in Victoria
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