Hawkesbury – Sydney’s largest council by area joins .id

.id is pleased to welcome the City of Hawkesbury, population 64,030, to the .id community! With the addition of Hawkesbury, all councils in Western Sydney now subscribe to one or more .id products. The Hawkesbury Community Profile and Hawkesbury Social Atlas have just gone online.

Read on for more information about Hawkesbury.

With a total area of 2,776 square kilometres, Hawkesbury makes up nearly 23% of the land area of the Sydney Statistical Division, but only 1.4% of the population. Hawkesbury has an age structure dominated by mature families seeking a semi-rural lifestyle not too far from the city, and a mix of very affluent areas, plus pockets of disadvantage.

Compared to Greater Sydney, Hawkesbury has a younger population, dominated by parents in their 40s, and school-age children. This is termed a “mature family” profile, and is common in areas with amount of rural residential housing. These areas tend to have lower proportions of people in their 20s, and Hawkesbury is no exception, but there are still quite a few 18-24 year olds, probably still living at home with their parents.

Looking at change between 2001 and 2006, the population actually declined slightly, with a large loss of 25-34 year olds, and gains among 50-something and 60-something adults (empty nesters) and older children still living at home (preventing the 50-somethings becomming empty nesters!). According to the preliminary population estimates from the ABS, this population decline has turned into increase over the past 4 years.

Compared to the Greater Sydney region, Hawkesbury has the following characteristics:

• A middle income area, with household incomes clustered in the two central quartiles.
• An area with a low proportion of university qualifications, but nearly a quarter of the popualtion (23%) have a trade qualification.
• A highly car dependent area – 22% of all households have 3 or more motor vehicles.
• A low unemployment rate – only 4.1% in 2006.
• In the 5 years to 2006, most of the population didn’t move, but like most parts of Sydney, there was some migration out to coastal retirement destinations and to Queensland.

But Hawkesbury isn’t just one place – the profile is broken down into 20 small areas, or districts within Hawkesbury. Here are some characteristics of Hawkesbury’s districts.

The highest proportion of high income households are in Windsor Downs and Grose Vale

Low incomes dominate in Richmond and Windsor

While overall cultural diversity is low, Windsor Downs (also the most highest socio-economic area in Hawkesbury) does have 10.6% of the population from a non-English speaking background.

While most homes in Hawkesbury were owner-occupied, Richmond and Bligh Park had high percentages of private rental.

Bligh Park and Bowen Mountain had the largest proportion of babies and pre-schoolers (over 9% each), while Richmond (11.9%) had the highest proportion of population over 75.

The largest area is “Rural North“, which is largely rugged wilderness and national park, covering 71% of the City’s land area, but only 4% of the population. One interesting statistic is that this one area alone, with about 2,550 people, comprises 16.2% of the entire land area of the Sydney Statistical Division, Australia’s most populous city! Localities in this district include Colo, Colo Heights, St Albans and part of Wisemans Ferry.

To find out more about Hawkesbury, see their profile and atlas sites.

Now that all Western Sydney councils are part of the .id community, the Western Suburbs Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) site has links to all individual council profiles.

Hawkesbury is one of  220 councils that have an online community profile. To find out information about other areas, visit the .id community.

.id is a team of population experts who combine online tools and consulting services to help local governments and organisations decide where and when to locate their facilities and services, to meet the needs of changing populations. Access our free demographic resources and tools here.