Northern Rivers, NSW
art-deco · tweed-river · sugar-country · caldera
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Drive to the coast
27 min
By road
Nearest major hospital
7 min
By road
Airport access
34 min
By road
Schools access
Excellent
Average daytime temp
25.9°C
Rainfall
Wet
Murwillumbah is a real Northern Rivers service town with art, agriculture and the Tweed River all present in daily life. Around 7,600 people live here, the median age is 46 and population growth has been modest at roughly 5% since 2016.
The town centre has more cultural depth than its size suggests, with the regional gallery, Margaret Olley Art Centre and M-Arts precinct providing a strong arts thread, while the surrounding caldera and sugar country keep the wider setting unmistakably rural. The housing market is around a $1.02 million median and three-bedroom rents near $750 a week.
Everyday services are well covered, with schools, healthcare and shopping strong, with the hospital only a few minutes away, making ordinary life much easier than in smaller hinterland villages. The coast is about 27 minutes away rather than outside the door, which helps preserve Murwillumbah’s inland identity.
Rainfall is high and lushness comes with wet seasons. Brisbane is around 1 hour 35 minutes away and the airport about half an hour, giving useful regional access without turning the town into a simple commuter suburb. Murwillumbah suits people who want a functioning local centre with arts and countryside around it, and who do not need beach access to define every day.
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It suits creatives, families, remote workers, tradespeople and people seeking acreage or green country without giving up schools, hospital access or a functioning town centre. It can also appeal to Northern Rivers buyers who want strong local culture but do not need to be on the beach every day.
The region is wet, and the coast is not immediately outside town. Housing is still substantial despite being below the NSW median. The Gold Coast is close enough for occasional use but not an effortless daily commute, and the local job market is smaller than a coastal regional centre's.
Visit Tweed Regional Gallery
Explore Margaret Olley Art Centre
Browse M-Arts Precinct
Walk the Rail Trail from Murwillumbah
Median house price
$1,023,000
8% below the NSW median
Median weekly rent (3-bed house)
$750
≈ $3,250/month
Houses here typically sell from $890,000 to $1,418,000 (25th–75th percentile).
Sourced from NSW Department of Communities and Justice · January - March 2026 quarter
Healthcare access
Excellent
Shopping & everyday services
Good
4–9 shopping centres within 20km
Internet connection
Fixed line
Plus 33 more within 20km — showing the 8 closest.
Job market by industry
Healthcare — 14.7%
Largest share of local jobs
Employment figures cover this town's wider statistical region, not the town alone — you'll see the same figures for Byron Bay, Mullumbimby, Evans Head, Lennox Head and Ballina.
The score ranks this region against other regions for the same occupation, not against other jobs here — a low score means it isn't a regional stronghold for that field, not that there are no vacancies. Counts online job advertisements, so trades and farm work hired by word of mouth are undercounted, and outside capital cities this is published at a regional level larger than one town.
Murwillumbah (SAL 12877) · 2021 Census
Older than the country as a whole: 25.5% are 65 or over against 17.2% nationally, and 18.2% are children against 18.2%. Among households, couples without children outnumber couples with them (39.4% of families against 35.5%).
Population
7,616
Population growth
+4.6%
Murwillumbah (SA2 112031251)
Median age
46 years
Labour force participation
51.2%
Growth is measured across the wider area named under the figure, which can be a different size to the town.
Share of total population in each band — rounding means these won't land on exactly 100%.
Couples are a share of total families; lone-person households are a share of total households — different bases, not one breakdown.
Median personal income
$604
Per week · ≈ $31,408/year
Median family income
$1,468
Per week
Median household income
$1,147
Per week
Personal is one person's income; family and household cover everyone living together — a single-income household will show a lower household figure than its highest earner's personal one. Personal income also covers every resident aged 15 and over, retirees included, so it reads low in a town with an older population even where household income is solid.
Owner-occupied
65.7%
Rented
30.1%
Born in Australia
80.4%
Born overseas
13.3%
Doesn't sum to 100% — people who didn't state a birthplace are excluded rather than redistributed.