Toogoolawah, QLD
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Toogoolawah is a town in the Brisbane Valley of south-east Queensland, in the Somerset Region about 106 kilometres north-west of Brisbane. First known as Cressbrook, it took its present name from the local railway station around 1903; the name is thought to come from Aboriginal words for a tree with a crescent-shaped or twisted trunk. The town grew when the Cressbrook estate was subdivided into dairy farms, and a condensed-milk factory operated here until 1929. Today Toogoolawah is well known as a skydiving and gliding centre, with tandem jumps over the valley, and it sits on the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail, a long cycling and walking route along the old railway line. Cressbrook Creek runs through the town.
Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs
Toogoolawah is more socio-economically advantaged than about 9% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 886, 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 Toogoolawah 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 Toogoolawah 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
9/100Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs
Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (9/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
57/100Around the national median for cost
Median weekly rent was $260 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 57% 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.
Toogoolawah at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 1,200
- Median age
- 56
- Median weekly household income
- $967
- SEIFA score
- 886
- Local government area
- Somerset
- Coordinates
- -27.0933, 152.3699
Map of Toogoolawah
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Toogoolawah
What it costs to live in Toogoolawah and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $260
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,127
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 72%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 23%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Toogoolawah demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Toogoolawah demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Toogoolawah 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 37% and 11% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 161 | 13% |
| Youth (15–24) | 98 | 8% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 189 | 16% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 318 | 26% |
| Seniors (65+) | 446 | 37% |
Share of the 1,212 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 241 | 47% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 129 | 25% |
| Rented | 116 | 23% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 479 | 93% |
| Townhouses & semis | 25 | 5% |
| Flats & apartments | 3 | 1% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 515 occupied private dwellings in Toogoolawah.
- Average household size
- 2.2 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,230
- Median weekly personal income
- $501
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 123 (11%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 19 (2%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 58 (5%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 358 (35%)
- Labour-force participation
- 41.5%
- Unemployment rate
- 5.1%
- Employed full-time
- 218
- Employed part-time
- 141
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 Toogoolawah
Is Toogoolawah 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, Toogoolawah rates 25/100 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 Toogoolawah?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Toogoolawah was $260, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,127. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Toogoolawah?
Toogoolawah is a suburb of Queensland, Australia, in the Somerset local government area.
What is the population of Toogoolawah?
At the 2021 Census, Toogoolawah had a population of about 1,200.
Is Toogoolawah an advantaged area?
Toogoolawah has an ABS SEIFA score of 886, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 9 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 9% of Australian suburbs.
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