IRSAD
Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage
Score 970
Measures relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 5 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 4 of 10
For state-level context, explore the New South Wales economy.
Housing
Pola Creek
New South Wales · Census 2021
Median house price not tracked for this suburb
Pola Creek is a leafy residential suburb of Kempsey.
Median house price
No Valuer-General median for Pola Creek.
New South Wales's Valuer-General sales data is open, but we have no suburb median for Pola Creek from it. ABS median established-house price, Greater Sydney: $1.5M; Rest of NSW: $825k.
How it compares
Household income / wk85th percentile
<$564ABS Census 2021$3,833+
Percentiles rank this suburb against New South Wales suburbs that carry the metric — never across states, and never against suburbs where it is missing. Price references are ABS median established-house transfer prices for the Mar 2026 quarter (CC BY 4.0); the suburb figure is a Valuer-General median over a different window, so read the gap as indicative. Income references are the Census 2021 median of the middle suburb in New South Wales and nationally, not a household-weighted median.
People & housing
Population
86
Median age
40 yrs
Income / person / wk
$767
Household income / wk
$2,333
▲ 47% vs NSW
Median rent / wk
$280
Mortgage / month
$1,668
Housing stock
20 occupied private dwellings
ABS Census 2021 (CC BY 4.0). Withheld for very small populations — under 100 residents, or under 50 dwellings, households or workers for the shares that count those.
Socio-economic profile
IRSD
Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage
Score 1,020
Measures relative socio-economic disadvantage only; a higher score means less disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 6 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 5 of 10
IER
Economic Resources
Score 1,049
Measures access to economic resources, including income, housing costs and assets.
Within AustraliaDecile 7 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 6 of 10
IEO
Education and Occupation
Score 937
Measures relative education and occupation characteristics.
Within AustraliaDecile 3 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 3 of 10
Scores are standardised across Australia to a mean of 1,000 and a standard deviation of 100. Deciles run from 1 (most disadvantaged) to 10 (least disadvantaged).
Source: ABS SEIFA 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
Terrain & hazard exposure
Median elevation
2 m
range 0–19 m
Land below 5 m
92%
61% below 2 m
Shares are the proportion of the suburb's land area. Land where Landsat saw water in at least 1% of clear passes since 1987, excluding permanent water and filtered by DEA's confidence layer. Satellites miss flood peaks, so this is a floor, not a risk estimate; dense high-rise cores can still register tower shadow as water. No flood map lodged in the NSW planning instruments for most of this suburb; most councils keep theirs in a development control plan. Designated for development control; a designation, not a prediction of fire behaviour. Elevation is orthometric height from a 30 m model; no hydrology or drainage is modelled.
Planning & zoning
Zoning mix (share of the suburb's land)
Show on map →- Rural88%
- Waterways8.7%
- Infrastructure & special purpose3.2%
- Low-density residential<0.1%
In a heritage area
0%
conservation area / Heritage Overlay
Show on map →Listed heritage places
0
items in the LEP heritage schedule
Minimum lot size
1 ha
to subdivide residential land
Planning instrument: Kempsey Local Environmental Plan 2013. Zones are grouped into ten families so states compare; the council's own scheme is the authority for any one lot. Height, floor space ratio and lot size are the NSW Local Environmental Plan standards: the area-weighted median over the residential-zoned land where the LEP maps that standard, given only where it maps it on at least half of that land; clause-based exceptions are not modelled. Not given because the LEP maps them on under half of the suburb's residential land (usually only its centres): maximum building height (0%), floor space ratio (0%). Listed-place counts follow each state's own list, so they do not compare across states. Source: NSW EPI Land Zoning; NSW EPI Heritage; NSW EPI Height of Buildings, Floor Space Ratio and Lot Size.
Schools by sector
- Nearest secondary
- 5.0 km
School sector & type: ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), School Location dataset.
Local council
- Council (LGA)
- Kempsey
- Population
- 31,950 (2025) · +0.4% in a year
- Area / density
- 3,376 km² · 9/km²
- Council medians (2021)
- age 48 · $1,085/wk household income · $300/wk rent
- Council-wide house median (2023-24)
- $590k
- Federal grants
- $8.69M in 2025-26 · $272/resident
- Website
- kempsey.nsw.gov.au
Council boundaries and the suburb split: ABS ASGS LGA 2024, allocated by 2021 mesh block and weighted by Census 2021 residents. Population: ABS Estimated Resident Population 2025. Medians: ABS Census 2021. House median: ABS Data by Region, established-house transfers across the whole council, financial year 2023-24. Federal grants: Financial Assistance Grants, Dept of Infrastructure. ABS and Dept of Infrastructure data CC BY 4.0; council website from Wikidata (CC0).
Representation
- Federal division
- Cowper
- Federal MP
- Pat Conaghan (NP)
- Two-party-preferred
- Coalition 59% 2PP
- State electorate
- Oxley
- State MP
- Michael Kemp (NAT)
Similar suburbs
Closest demographic & amenity profile, nationally.
Sources: ABS ASGS boundaries (CC BY 4.0); ABS Census 2021 (CC BY 4.0); Australian Electoral Commission (CC BY 4.0); Geoscience Australia 1 Second DEM-S (CC BY 4.0); DEA Water Observations Statistics, Geoscience Australia (CC BY 4.0); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Flood, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY 4.0); NSW Bush Fire Prone Land, NSW Rural Fire Service (CC BY 4.0); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Land Zoning, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Heritage, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Height of Buildings, Floor Space Ratio and Minimum Lot Size, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY); Wikipedia state-member tables (CC BY-SA 4.0). Not financial advice.