Penguin (Sulphur Creek area)
Tasmania · Burnie - Ulverstone, West and North West
Live · ABS ERP June 2025
The median age is 47, higher than the middle Tasmania area (42, Census 2021).
Penguin (Sulphur Creek area) has 2 schools (1 government, 1 non-government; ACARA School Profile 2025) and 2 NQS-rated childcare services (ACECQA register). Population is 5,573 (ABS ERP June 2025).
Penguin (Sulphur Creek area) at a glance
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Boundaries: ABS Suburbs & Localities 2021. School pins are ACARA's published locations. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO. Open the full TAS map →
How the Family-Fit score is built43/100
Family-Fit score
Method published in fullLimited family services - strongest on everyday amenities, weakest on childcare & early years.
- Schools in the area · 20% of the score
- 42/100
- Childcare & early years · 15% of the score
- 20/100
- Everyday amenities · 15% of the score
- 69/100
- Housing affordability · 15% of the score
- 51/100
- Families already here · 10% of the score
- 48/100
- Socio-economic profile · 10% of the score
- 22/100
TAS median 49/100
2 schools in this SA2 · average government-school ICSEA 960
TAS median 20/100
2 NQS-rated services nearby
TAS median 65/100
3 parks · 1 GP · 3 supermarkets · 6 playgrounds
TAS median 50/100
Paying over 30% of income on housing: 8.9% of mortgage-holding households, 33.7% of renting households
TAS median 51/100
16.2% of residents are children aged 0–14 · 36.5% of families are couples with children
TAS median 22/100
SEIFA IRSAD decile 3 of 10 nationally
The grey marker on each bar is the median across the 91 Tasmania areas we publish a score for (state median overall: 45/100). It is context, not a pass mark.
Not scored here (no published data for this area, so it is left out rather than counted as zero): Getting around. The remaining inputs were rescaled to 100.
How this score is calculated
Each published figure for the Penguin - Sulphur Creek SA2 is mapped onto 0–100 by fixed thresholds, then weighted. Inputs with no data here are dropped and the rest rescaled - never scored as zero. Every threshold and weight →
School results, crime and flood or bushfire overlays are not graded into this score. Limits of the score →
What families notice
What families notice
- We don't have official school-zoning data for TAS yet (only VIC, NSW and QLD) - confirm zoning directly with the school or department.
- We don't yet have official crime data for TAS (only NSW and VIC) - that's a data gap on our side, not a claim this area is safe.
- About 34% of renters here spend over 30% of income on rent - above the standard affordability guideline (ABS Census 2021).
Living in Penguin - Sulphur Creek: family snapshot
Living in Penguin - Sulphur Creek
A smaller suburb. 2 NQS-rated childcare services nearby. Mostly detached family homes.
Penguin (Sulphur Creek area) compared with Tasmania10 measures
| Measure | Penguin - Sulphur Creek | TAS average | Against TAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Children aged 0 to 4 | 4.6% | 5.1% | About the same |
| Children aged 5 to 14 | 11.6% | 11.5% | About the same |
| Couple families with children | 36.5% | 36.7% | About the same |
| One-parent families | 13.8% | 17.4% | Lower |
| Homes owned outright | 41.8% | 37.6% | Higher |
| Homes owned with a mortgage | 37.4% | 33.8% | Higher |
| Homes rented | 19.5% | 26.7% | Lower |
| Separate houses | 92.3% | 88.0% | Higher |
| Flats and apartments | 0.2% | 5.3% | Lower |
| Born overseas | 10.1% | 15.4% | Lower |
Source: ABS Census 2021. The TAS figure is the population-weighted average of the 99 TAS areas with a published value. "Higher" and "Lower" describe the number only.
About this area and its boundary
Penguin - Sulphur Creek is a locality in the Burnie - Ulverstone area of Tasmania. This profile draws on ABS population and Census figures, the ACARA school register and ACECQA childcare ratings for the Penguin - Sulphur Creek SA2.
5,573 residents - 16.2% are children under 15, median age 47.
Why “Penguin - Sulphur Creek”? The ABS divides the larger suburb of Penguin into several statistical areas (SA2s); this profile covers one part of it. Other parts are listed further down. SA2 boundaries don’t always match suburb boundaries. It covers the gazetted suburbs of Penguin, Sulphur Creek, Heybridge, Preservation Bay and Howth, drawn separately on the map above.
Property market
No free house sale price or 3-bedroom house rent is published for this area. 19.5% of homes are rented, against 26.7% across Tasmania.
Homes and households
Source: ABS Census 2021. Where the shares do not add to 100%, the rest is "other" or "not stated".
Housing cost pressuremortgage and rent against income
Housing cost pressure
In Penguin - Sulphur Creek, 33.7% of renting households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, and 8.9% of households with a mortgage spend more than 30% on repayments - the ABS's stretched-household threshold (Census 2021).
ABS published figures, not our calculation.
- Mortgage over 30% of income
- 8.9%
- Rent over 30% of income
- 33.7%
TAS avg 10.1%
Share of households WITH a mortgage whose repayments take more than 30% of income. That's 70 of 671 households with a stated repayment.
TAS avg 34.2%
Share of RENTING households whose rent takes more than 30% of income. That's 138 of 374 households with a stated rent.
The two figures cover different households (mortgage-holding vs renting), so never add them. How the ABS counts these → Grey marker: TAS average (96 for mortgage and 96 for rent). Census 2021 - housing costs have moved since. Not financial advice.
What's being built herenew homes approved, year by year
What's being built here
23 new homes were approved in Penguin - Sulphur Creek in the year to June 2025. Councils approved 166 new dwellings here across the 6 years to June 2025 - an approval is permission to build, not a home that exists yet.
Approved in the year to June 2025
Middle TAS area: 19
Separate houses
Private sector, over these 6 years
Townhouses & apartments
Private sector, over these 6 years
Counts are for the whole Penguin - Sulphur Creek statistical area. What these counts include → Dashed line: the median of 93Tasmania areas.
Schools and childcare
2 schools are located in the area. 2 childcare services are on the national register, 1 rated Meeting the National Quality Standard or above.
Government schools in Penguin - Sulphur Creek
Free government schools your child may attend. Exact school zones aren’t mapped for TAS yet, so we can’t confirm which one is yours.
A picture of students’ family backgrounds (ICSEA) - not a ranking or a quality score.
Fee-paying schools can’t be enrolled in by zone - they’re shown for context, not as the area’s school quality.
We show school intake context and catchments, not exam results. We don’t publish a school ranking.
To look beyond Penguin - Sulphur Creek, every Tasmania school is on the Australian schools and catchment zones map.
Schools in Penguin - Sulphur Creek
ICSEA reflects student intake context, not teaching quality (1000 = national average). Source: ACARA School Profile 2025. All TAS schools →
Childcare: 2 services
National Quality Standard ratings from the ACECQA register, refreshed Oct 2026. Services are matched by suburb name.
Childcare services, ratings and fees2 services
- Meeting NQSPenguin Fun Club Outside School Hours CareCentre-Based Care · 58 places · PenguinRated Feb 2021 · over 3 years old, check for a more recent assessment
- Working Towards NQSLittle Kindy PenguinCentre-Based Care · 45 places · PenguinRated Feb 2024
- Centre-based day care
- $12.60/hr
- Outside school hours care
- $11.80/hr
Mean hourly fee across CCS-approved services, December quarter 2025 - Dept of Education, © Commonwealth of Australia, CC BY 4.0. Published at SA3 level (a wider area than this suburb's SA2), so it's an average across Burnie - Ulverstone and surrounds, not this specific service list.
Verify locations before visiting. A rating over 3 years old is flagged. What the NQS ratings mean → Childcare places per child, by suburb →
Who lives here
Fewer rented homes than Tasmania overall: 19.5% of homes, against 26.7% statewide.
Ages of people here
Share of residents in each age band, in years. Source: ABS Census 2021.
How the area is changingCensus 2011 to 2021
Each line is drawn on its own scale, so compare the numbers, not the heights. Source: ABS Census 2011, 2016 and 2021.
Census trends against the middle TAS areafull charts
Which way this area is moving
The 2011, 2016 and 2021 Censuses for Penguin - Sulphur Creek, counted on today's boundaries.
Since 2011, Penguin - Sulphur Creek has grown older, with a smaller share of children.
- People counted
- +484 people since 2011
- Median age
- +4 years since 2011
- Children aged 0–14
- −2.6 pts since 2011
- Born overseas
- +1.4 pts since 2011
- Speak another language at home
- +0.7 pts since 2011
Usual residents counted on Census night.
Half the residents are older than this, half younger.
Share of all residents. The clearest signal of families arriving or moving on.
Share of all residents born outside Australia.
Share of residents who stated a language, speaking one other than English at home.
The dashed line is the median across the Tasmania areas we profile. How the three Censuses line up →
Where this year's population change came from-0.50% in a year
Where did the loss come from?
-30Reading the streams: overseas arrivals were the dominant force - more came from abroad than the suburb grew on its own.
Ages against the state average, band by band
Ages of people here
11.6% of people here are school-age children (5–14) - about the Tasmania average of 11.5%, and 4.6% are under 5. The median age is 47.
- 0–4 years · before school
- 4.6%
- 5–14 years · school age
- 11.6%
- 15–19 years · teens
- 5.8%
- 20–34 years
- 15.1%
- 35–54 years
- 23.8%
- 55–64 years
- 16%
- 65 years and over
- 23%
TAS avg 5.1%
TAS avg 11.5%
TAS avg 5.4%
TAS avg 19.3%
TAS avg 24.2%
TAS avg 13.5%
TAS avg 20.9%
Share of all residents of Penguin - Sulphur Creek (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census; the grey marker is the Tasmania average. How the bands and averages work →
Households and families
Households and families
50% of families here have children living at home - fewer than the Tasmania average of 54%. The largest overseas-born communities are United Kingdom (4.5%), New Zealand (1.1%) and Netherlands (0.7%). 20% of homes are rented.
Family make-up
Share of all families in the area. A small "other family" group the ABS also counts is not shown.
- Couple with children
- 36.5%
- One-parent family
- 13.8%
- Couple, no children
- 49%
TAS avg 36.7%
TAS avg 17.4%
TAS avg 44.5%
What people live in
Share of occupied private dwellings. Other and unstated structures are not shown.
- Separate house
- 92.3%
- Semi-detached / townhouse
- 5.7%
- Flat or apartment
- 0.2%
TAS avg 88%
TAS avg 6.1%
TAS avg 5.3%
Owned or rented
Share of occupied private dwellings. Other and unstated tenures are not shown.
- Owned outright
- 41.8%
- Owned with a mortgage
- 37.4%
- Rented
- 19.5%
TAS avg 37.6%
TAS avg 33.8%
TAS avg 26.7%
Figures describe Penguin - Sulphur Creek (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census; the grey marker is the Tasmania average. How these are counted →
Birthplaces, languages and communities
Who lives in Penguin - Sulphur Creek
Top 5 overseas birthplaces shown · 93% born in Australia or a country not in the top five.
- United Kingdom · established by 2016
- 4.5%
- New Zealand · established by 2016
- 1.1%
- Netherlands · established by 2016
- 0.7%
- Philippines · growing since 2016
- 0.5%
- Germany · growing since 2016
- 0.2%
TAS avg 4.1%
TAS avg 0.9%
TAS avg 0.2%
TAS avg 0.2%
TAS avg 0.2%
- Nearby
- West Ulverstone, Ulverstone and Burnie - Ulverstone Surrounds also have an established United Kingdom community.
- Settlement pattern
- Of overseas-born residents who stated when they arrived, 11.7% arrived in the last 5 years (2016–2021) (TAS avg 20.2%) and 70.9% arrived before 2001 (TAS avg 51.4%).
- English at home
- Of residents who speak a language other than English at home and stated their English proficiency, 8.2% report speaking English “not well” or “not at all” (TAS avg 9.1%) - a self-reported ABS figure across all languages combined, not a judgement of any one community.
Figures describe Penguin - Sulphur Creek (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census. The ABS publishes only the five largest communities per area, so a missing name did not rank in the top five. How these are counted →
Socio-economic index (SEIFA)decile 3 of 10
- Decile (1 lowest, 10 highest)
- Decile 3 of 10
- Where this sits in TAS
- bottom 30% of Tasmania areas
A relative comparison of the whole area against all of Australia - not a safety, liveability, or school-quality measure. What IRSAD measures → Source: ABS SEIFA 2021, IRSAD index (SA2).
Getting around and lifestyle
3 supermarkets, 1 GP and 3 parks are mapped in the area, and the nearest emergency department is North West Regional Hospital, 16.2 km away in a straight line.
Mapped inside the Penguin - Sulphur Creek boundary. A zero can mean "not mapped" rather than "not there". Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Train to the city and nearest emergency department
Train to the city
Not publishedTasmania publishes no passenger-rail timetable feed, so we show no train travel time. Buses are not covered anywhere on this site.
Nearest emergency department
MappedNorth West Regional Hospital · 16.2 km
Straight-line distance from the middle of this area - not a drive time. In an emergency call 000; do not plan around this figure.
Community and recreation
Out with a baby
Public-toilet facilities recorded on the National Public Toilet Map - not every place in the area that will let you change a baby.
About this data
Counts of features tagged in OpenStreetMap inside the Penguin - Sulphur Creek boundary. “Middle TAS area”: the median of 96 Tasmania areas. How these counts and times are made →
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors · baby-facility counts from the National Public Toilet Map (Continence Foundation of Australia, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, CC BY 3.0 AU)
Crime & safety in Penguin - Sulphur Creek
Official recorded-incident data is only published on this site for NSW and VIC so far - that's a coverage gap on our side, not a claim that Penguin - Sulphur Creek is safe. SuburbRadar does not rate suburbs as safe or unsafe. More on crime & safety →
Risks
1 of the 1 planning and hazard records we hold show something in this area: traffic noise. 6 more are not published for TAS - treat them as not checked.
Traffic noise
Freeway or highway presentBass Highway
Each line is the extent of an official record across the whole Penguin - Sulphur Creek area - not a risk rating, and a specific address may or may not be affected. Not financial or insurance advice.
All 9 checks and what each one means
Flooding
Not publishedNo free statewide flood overlay is published for TAS yet, so we show none. Check the local council's planning maps.
Bushfire
Not publishedWe hold official bushfire mapping for Victoria and New South Wales only - nothing is published here for TAS yet. Check the state fire service's mapping.
Heritage controls
Not publishedWe hold official heritage overlay mapping for Victoria and New South Wales only - nothing is published here for TAS yet. Check the local council's planning scheme and the state heritage register.
Traffic noise
Freeway or highway presentBass Highway
1 named road through this area carries OpenStreetMap's highest classification - a freeway, motorway or major highway, whatever the road is called locally, alongside 8 named main roads. Roads are counted by name, not by mapped segment. Where a home sits relative to them matters far more than the count - a street two blocks back can be quiet.
Aircraft noise
Not publishedWe hold official aircraft-noise mapping for Victoria and New South Wales only - nothing is published here for TAS yet. Check the airport's noise contours and the local planning scheme.
Land contamination checks
Not mappedWe hold official contaminated-land overlay mapping for Victoria only - nothing is published here for TAS yet. Check the state environment authority's contaminated land register and the local planning scheme.
Acid sulfate soils
Not publishedWe hold acid sulfate soil mapping for Victoria and New South Wales only - nothing is published here for TAS yet. Coastal and estuarine land is where these soils occur; check the state's soil mapping and the local planning scheme.
Recorded crime
Not publishedTAS does not release the suburb-level incident counts we republish for New South Wales and Victoria, so we show none here.
Social housing
Census figure3.0% rented from a state or territory housing authority · 0.2% from a community housing provider
Share of occupied private dwellings here with a stated tenure (Census 2021). The middle TAS area is 2.3% public and 0.6% community, across 96 areas. Listed because families ask; it is a fact about who owns the homes, not a judgement about the people in them.
About this data
Every line is an official published record for the Penguin - Sulphur Creek area - we don't rate, score or rank any of them. Where a line is missing, treat it as not checked rather than clear. What each line covers and does not →
Source: ABS Census 2021 (G37 tenure and landlord type) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) - road classification
Nearby suburbs
- West Ulverstone 7.5 km
- Ulverstone 9.6 km
- Burnie (Ulverstone Surrounds area) 11 km
- Romaine (Havenview area) 15 km
- Acton (Upper Burnie area) 16 km
- Turners Beach (Forth area) 16 km
The six closest profiled areas in Tasmania, by distance between area centres.
The suburbs in this area
Everything else on this page is published for Penguin - Sulphur Creek as a whole - one ABS statistical area covering 5 separate gazetted suburbs. These are the figures published for each of those suburbs on its own.
| Suburb | Residents Census 2021 | Schools |
|---|---|---|
| Penguin | 4,132 | 2 |
| Sulphur Creek | 707 | 0 |
| Heybridge | 442 | 0 |
| Preservation Bay | 100 | 0 |
| Howth | 61 | 0 |
Each row is that suburb's own published figure - nothing here is the wider area's number divided up. Resident counts are the Census 2021 usual-resident count for the gazetted suburb, so they will not add up to the population at the top of this page, which is the ABS's later June 2025 estimate for the whole statistical area: a different measure on a different date. Schools are ACARA-registered schools whose published address falls inside the suburb boundary, which is not the same as the school your address is zoned to. No free source publishes suburb-level house medians in Tasmania, so no price column is shown - that is our coverage gap, not a statement about the market here. Every other figure on this page - crime & safety, overlays, commute, amenities, projections, the Family-Fit score - is published for the whole statistical area and cannot be separated by suburb.
Other areas in Burnie - Ulverstonesorted by growth in one year
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