Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest
NSW · 1 school · zoned Tea Gardens Public School · 3 childcare services
5,786 residents - 7.5% are children under 15, median age 65, the largest overseas-born community is United Kingdom (7.0%).
Family-Fit score
Our method is published belowFew family services nearby - strongest on everyday amenities, weakest on families already here.
- Schools in the area · 20% of the score
- 22/100
- Childcare & early years · 15% of the score
- 30/100
- Everyday amenities · 15% of the score
- 73/100
- Housing affordability · 15% of the score
- 31/100
- Families already here · 10% of the score
- 0/100
- Socio-economic profile · 10% of the score
- 33/100
NSW median 70/100
1 school in this SA2 · average government-school ICSEA 934
NSW median 90/100
3 NQS-rated services nearby
NSW median 67/100
16 parks · 1 GP · 2 supermarkets · 10 playgrounds
NSW median 38/100
Paying over 30% of income on housing: 18.3% of mortgage-holding households, 42.7% of renting households
NSW median 67/100
7.5% of residents are children aged 0–14 · 16.2% of families are couples with children
NSW median 56/100
SEIFA IRSAD decile 4 of 10 nationally
The grey marker on each bar is the median across the 612 New South Wales areas we publish a score for (state median overall: 63/100). 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
Every input is a free, already-published government figure for the Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest SA2, mapped onto 0–100 by the fixed thresholds written below, then weighted. Inputs with no published data for this area are dropped and the rest rescaled - never scored as zero. We publish this method in full; the point of the score is that you can check it.
Read the bars, not just the number. Two inputs - school intake profile and SEIFA - both partly reflect how wealthy an area is, so they tend to move together. That is a real limitation of the score, which is why the breakdown is shown next to it.
What is deliberately not in it. School results (NAPLAN or VCE), crime, and flood or bushfire overlays are not graded into this score. Those appear elsewhere on this page as the official figures themselves, described in words - never reduced to a grade.
Sources: ACARA school register, ACECQA National Quality Standard register, OpenStreetMap, state GTFS timetables, ABS Census 2021, ABS SEIFA 2021 and the ABS housing affordability indicators. Where each dataset comes from →
Boundaries: ABS Suburbs & Localities 2021. School pins are ACARA's published locations. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO. Open the full NSW map →
Why “Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest”? The ABS divides the larger suburb of Tea Gardens 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 Tea Gardens, Hawks Nest, North Arm Cove, Pindimar, Bundabah, Carrington (Mid-Coast - NSW) and Tahlee, drawn separately on the map above.
Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest is a locality in the Port Stephens area of New South Wales. This profile draws on ABS population and Census figures, the ACARA school register and ACECQA childcare ratings for the Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest SA2.
Living in Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest
A smaller suburb. Strong United Kingdom communities here (2021 Census). 3 NQS-rated childcare services nearby. Mostly detached family homes.
What families notice
- This address is zoned to Tea Gardens Public School (government, no fees).
- Recorded incidents are down 17% on the year before.
- 16 parks mapped inside this SA2 (OpenStreetMap).
- About 43% of renters here spend over 30% of income on rent - above the standard affordability guideline (ABS Census 2021).
- We don't yet have property or rent figures for this area - check a real-estate portal directly for current prices.
Schools, childcare & safety
Live data for the Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest SA2 - ACARA schools register, ACECQA childcare ratings, police-recorded incidents.
Tea Gardens Public School
The government school your child can attend for free by living in Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest.
This is the zoned government school for the centre of Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest (NSW catchment data) - addresses elsewhere in the suburb may be zoned to a different school.
See the catchment on the mapWe show school intake context and catchments, not exam results. We don’t publish a school ranking.
Schools in Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest
- Primary · Government · Years K-6Enrolment130ICSEA934
ICSEA reflects student intake context, not teaching quality (1000 = national average). All NSW schools →
Childcare & early learning
- Meeting NQSAmaroo Early Learning CentreCentre-Based Care · 46 places · Tea GardensRated Jul 2023 · over 3 years old, check for a more recent assessment
- Meeting NQSAmaroo OSHC Tea GardensCentre-Based Care · 27 places · Tea GardensRated Dec 2022 · over 3 years old, check for a more recent assessment
- Meeting NQSTea Gardens Hawks Nest PreschoolCentre-Based Care · 20 places · Hawks NestRated Dec 2024
- Centre-based day care
- $13.85/hr
- Outside school hours care
- $10.55/hr
Mean hourly fee across CCS-approved services, December quarter 2025 - Dept of Education. Published at SA3 level (a wider area than this suburb's SA2), so it's an average across Port Stephens and surrounds, not this specific service list.
NQS = National Quality Standard, the government benchmark ACECQA rates every service against - from "Working Towards" (below benchmark) up through "Meeting", "Exceeding" and "Excellent". Services matched by suburb name on the ACECQA register - verify locations before visiting. Ratings are reassessed periodically, not on a fixed schedule - a rating over 3 years old is flagged so you know to check for anything more recent.
Safety - recorded incidents
- Incidents, latest year
- 112
- vs previous year
- -17%
- vs 2021
- 184
- Theft 39
- Intimidation, stalking and harassment 21
- Assault 13
- Other offences 11
- Malicious damage to property 10
Police-recorded incident counts (Calendar years; latest = Jan-Dec 2025). These are not population-adjusted and are not a judgement about the suburb - larger, busier areas record more incidents. More on safety →
The suburbs in this area
Everything else on this page is published for Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest as a whole - one ABS statistical area covering 7 separate gazetted suburbs. These are the figures published for each of those suburbs on its own.
| Suburb | Residents Census 2021 | Schools | Median house price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tea Gardens | 3,288 | 1 | $820k |
| Hawks Nest | 1,413 | 0 | $820k |
| North Arm Cove | 552 | 0 | $820k |
| Pindimar | 345 | 0 | $820k |
| Bundabah | 140 | 0 | $820k |
| Carrington | 32 | 0 | - |
| Tahlee | 28 | 0 | $820k |
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. Median house prices in New South Wales are published by postcode, not by suburb (marked *), so suburbs sharing a postcode show the same figure - it describes the postcode, not the individual suburb. Every other figure on this page - safety, overlays, commute, amenities, projections, the Family-Fit score - is published for the whole statistical area and cannot be separated by suburb.
Ages of people here
5.6% of people here are school-age children (5–14) - fewer than the New South Wales average of 12.4%, and 2% are under 5. The median age is 65.
- 0–4 years · before school
- 2%
- 5–14 years · school age
- 5.6%
- 15–19 years · teens
- 3%
- 20–34 years
- 6.4%
- 35–54 years
- 13.9%
- 55–64 years
- 17.4%
- 65 years and over
- 51.8%
NSW avg 5.8%
NSW avg 12.4%
NSW avg 5.7%
NSW avg 20.3%
NSW avg 26.3%
NSW avg 11.9%
NSW avg 17.6%
Share of all residents of Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census. Bands are the ABS’s own age groups, combined only where whole groups sit side by side - nothing is split or estimated inside a group. The seven shares cover everyone, but they don’t total exactly 100%: the ABS adjusts small counts slightly to protect privacy. The grey marker on each bar is the New South Wales average, population-weighted across the 641 SA2s in the state and shown for context only - it is not a target or a pass mark.
Households and families
26% of families here have children living at home - fewer than the New South Wales average of 60%. The largest overseas-born communities are United Kingdom (7%), New Zealand (1.8%) and South Africa (0.7%). 16% 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
- 16.2%
- One-parent family
- 9.6%
- Couple, no children
- 73.4%
NSW avg 44.5%
NSW avg 15.9%
NSW avg 37.9%
What people live in
Share of occupied private dwellings. Other and unstated structures are not shown.
- Separate house
- 88.7%
- Semi-detached / townhouse
- 7.9%
- Flat or apartment
- 2.4%
NSW avg 67.4%
NSW avg 11.6%
NSW avg 20.3%
Owned or rented
Share of occupied private dwellings. Other and unstated tenures are not shown.
- Owned outright
- 54.6%
- Owned with a mortgage
- 17.3%
- Rented
- 15.8%
NSW avg 31.9%
NSW avg 33.7%
NSW avg 32.5%
Figures describe Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census. The grey marker on each bar is the New South Wales average, population-weighted across the 641 SA2s in the state and shown for context only - it is not a target or a pass mark. The ABS does not publish every breakdown for smaller areas, so some groups may be missing.
Who lives in Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest
Top 5 overseas birthplaces shown · 89.4% born in Australia or a country not in the top five.
- United Kingdom · established by 2016
- 7%
- New Zealand · established by 2016
- 1.8%
- South Africa · established by 2016
- 0.7%
- Germany · established by 2016
- 0.7%
- Netherlands · established by 2016
- 0.4%
NSW avg 3.2%
NSW avg 1.1%
NSW avg 0.3%
NSW avg 0.1%
NSW avg 0%
- Nearby
- Nelson Bay Peninsula, Anna Bay and Lemon Tree Passage - Tanilba Bay also have an established United Kingdom community.
- Settlement pattern
- Of overseas-born residents who stated when they arrived, 6.4% arrived in the last 5 years (2016–2021) (NSW avg 16.2%) and 81.1% arrived before 2001 (NSW avg 52%).
- English at home
- Of residents who speak a language other than English at home and stated their English proficiency, 10.7% report speaking English “not well” or “not at all” (NSW avg 13.5%) - a self-reported ABS figure across all languages combined, not a judgement of any one community.
Figures describe Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census. The grey marker on each bar is the New South Wales average, population-weighted across the 641 SA2s in the state and shown for context only - it is not a target or a pass mark. The ABS publishes only the five largest communities per suburb, so a name missing from the list didn’t rank in the top five - not that nobody from it lives here. “Established by 2016” means that community was already a comparable share of the population at the 2016 Census; “growing since 2016” means its share has grown substantially since then. Both are facts about population change, not a ranking of one community against another.
Socio-economic index (SEIFA)
- Decile (1 lowest – 10 highest)
- Decile 4 of 10
- Where this sits in NSW
- bottom 40% of New South Wales areas
IRSAD (the Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage) ranks this SA2 against every other area in Australia on income, education, occupation and other Census indicators, then groups them into ten equal-sized deciles. It's a relative comparison of the whole area - not a safety, liveability, or school-quality measure, and it says nothing about any individual household.
Which way this area is moving
A single census tells you what Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest is like now. Three tell you which way it has been heading. These are the 2011, 2016 and 2021 Censuses counted on today's boundaries.
Since 2011, Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest has grown older, with a smaller share of children and more residents born overseas.
- People counted
- +1,302 people since 2011
- Median age
- +6 years since 2011
- Children aged 0–14
- −6.0 pts since 2011
- Born overseas
- +2.1 pts since 2011
- Speak another language at home
- +0.4 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 areas we profile in New South Wales - up to 612, counting only those that report that same measure at all three Censuses, which differs slightly by measure. It is a typical area to read this one against, not a state total, and not a target this suburb is meant to hit. Each chart carries its own axis, drawn to fit its own numbers, so compare the labelled values rather than the steepness of one chart against another. Every figure is an ABS published count, or a share of two of them - there is no index or score here, and a direction is not a verdict: a rising median age or a falling share of children is simply a change, not a better or worse suburb. The three censuses are reported on 2021 SA2 boundaries, so changes are not caused by boundary redraws. ABS adjusts small counts slightly to protect confidentiality, so treat small movements as noise.
How many people will live around here
The rest of this page looks backwards. This is the one number that looks forward - and it is the state government's own, not ours. Travel Zone Projections 2024 (Transport for NSW) projects the Mid-Coast council area, which contains Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest along with its neighbouring suburbs, to grow to 105,210 people by 2041: 8,860 more people than the 96,350 counted in 2021.
This is the council area, not Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest. Mid-Coast is a whole local government area covering many suburbs, and neither state publishes a projection for a single suburb. Growth is never spread evenly across a council - a greenfield estate and an established street inside the same council will move very differently - so read this as the direction of the wider area a suburb sits in, not as a forecast for its own streets. Only the years the publisher itself lists are plotted: nothing is filled in between them, and nothing is carried past 2041. A projection is an assumption about the future, not a measurement of it, and it will be revised - this one was released 2024. These figures sit on the projection's own series, so they are not directly comparable with the ABS resident-population and Census counts elsewhere on this page, which use different geographies and different years.
Lifestyle & getting around
Everything mapped inside the Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest boundary, plus how long it takes to leave it. Counts are of features tagged in OpenStreetMap - we don't score or rank them, and each one is shown next to the middle NSW area so a number means something.
Everyday essentials
Supermarkets
Middle NSW area: 2
GPs & clinics
Middle NSW area: 1
Parks
Middle NSW area: 17
Playgrounds
Middle NSW area: 9
Train stations
Middle NSW area: 0
Libraries
Middle NSW area: 1
Community & recreation
Places of worship
Middle NSW area: 1
Community centres
Middle NSW area: 0
Swimming pools
Middle NSW area: 0
Sports centres
Middle NSW area: 0
Out with a baby
Baby-change tables
Baby-care rooms
Public-toilet facilities recorded on the National Public Toilet Map - not every place in the area that will let you change a baby.
Getting out of the area
-
Train to the city
Not publishedNew South Wales publishes its timetable data behind a free developer account we have not yet set up, so we show no travel time here. This is a gap on our side, not a statement about the transport in this area.
-
Nearest emergency department
MappedTomaree Community Hospital · 10.8 km
Straight-line distance from the middle of this area to the nearest hospital tagged with an emergency department - not a drive time, and not necessarily the closest by road. General emergency departments treat children as well as adults. In an emergency call 000; do not plan around this figure.
Counts are of features tagged in OpenStreetMap inside the Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest boundary, not a register of everything that exists - community mapping is uneven, so a zero can mean "not mapped" rather than "not there", and a shop or clinic just over the boundary won't appear here even if it is the one you'd use. “Middle NSW area” is the median count across the 635 New South Wales areas we hold counts for - context, not a target. Areas differ hugely in size, so we never turn these counts into a rate, index or score. Verify anything you're relying on with a local directory or a visit.
Risks & things to check
The checks families run one by one before committing to Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest, in one place. Every line is an official published record for the Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest area - we don't rate, score or rank any of them, and a line we can't answer says so.
-
Flooding
Not publishedNew South Wales publishes flood planning maps council by council, with no free statewide layer we can republish - check the local council's flood planning map for this area.
-
Bushfire
Designated Bush Fire Prone LandPresent in this area
Part of this area is mapped as Bush Fire Prone Land by the NSW Rural Fire Service. This designation is drawn broadly around vegetation across most of NSW, so read it as "check the property", not as a measure of how exposed the area is.
-
Heritage controls
In an official overlayPresent in this area
Part of this area sits inside the heritage layer in the local environmental plan, so changes to buildings there - extensions, demolition, sometimes even paint colours - need planning approval. It applies property by property: most homes in an area with an overlay are not in it, and being in one is a protection as much as a restriction. Almost every NSW area contains some heritage-listed land, so read this as "check the address", not as something that sets this area apart.
-
Traffic noise
Freeway or highway presentPacific Highway · Myall Way
2 named roads through this area carry OpenStreetMap's highest classification - a freeway, motorway or major highway, whatever the road is called locally, alongside 4 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 mappedNew South Wales maps aircraft-noise contours only where a council or precinct plan writes them in - four councils and the Western Sydney Airport precinct do. Sydney Airport's contours are published federally in its master plan and are not in the state layer, so read this as "nothing mapped here", not as a quiet area.
-
Land contamination checks
Not mappedNew South Wales records contaminated land in the EPA's searchable register of notified sites rather than in a planning-scheme map layer, so we have no overlay to show for this area. Search the NSW EPA contaminated land record for a specific address - nothing mapped here means we have not checked it, not that the land is clear.
-
Acid sulfate soils
Classified in the local planPresent in this area
Part of this area is classified for acid sulfate soils in the local environmental plan, which means work disturbing the soil below a set depth needs council consent. Acid sulfate soils are harmless while they stay wet and buried; digging into them - for a pool, footings, a basement or drainage - exposes them to air and produces acid that eats concrete and steel and can kill fish downstream, so excavation may need a management plan. The class describes how close the soils are likely to sit to the surface, not how bad they are. Much of the low-lying land around the coast and its rivers is classified, so read this as "check before you dig", not as something that sets this area apart.
-
Recorded crime
Official counts published112 incidents
Police-recorded criminal incidents in Calendar years; latest = Jan-Dec 2025, down 17% on the prior year. A count, not a rate - busier areas with more shops, stations and visitors record more incidents than quiet ones of the same size. Full breakdown ↑
-
Social housing
Census figure0.0% 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 NSW area is 1.6% public and 0.7% community, across 624 areas. Listed because families ask; it is a fact about who owns the homes, not a judgement about the people in them.
Hazard lines republish the extent of an official overlay across the whole Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest area - they are not a risk rating, hazard score or insurance assessment, and we compute none. A specific address inside the area may or may not be affected: check the current planning scheme and your insurer. Not financial or insurance advice. The traffic line names the roads mapped inside the area - it is not a noise measurement or a decibel estimate, and we compute neither: what a specific home hears depends on distance, traffic volume, speed, barriers and terrain, which no free dataset publishes. The heritage, aircraft-noise and land-contamination lines are planning controls rather than hazards, and apply property by property - the contamination line flags land an audit must check before it is used for housing or childcare, never land found to be contaminated. The acid-sulfate line covers coastal and estuarine land only, because that is where those soils form - inland, "none mapped" means outside the mapped zone, not a soil test. We don't yet cover EPA notices, mine subsidence, landslide or coastal erosion - where a line is missing, treat it as not checked rather than clear.
What's being built here
23 new homes were approved in Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest in the year to June 2025. Councils approved 172 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 NSW area: 37
Separate houses
Private sector, over these 6 years
Townhouses & apartments
Private sector, over these 6 years
An approval is not a building. These are dwellings a council approved; some are never built, and the ones that are usually take years, so this is a signal of what is planned around a suburb, not a count of homes standing in it. It is also not a forecast - nothing here is projected forward. The total covers every dwelling approved, public and private; the houses and apartments figures are the private-sector split the ABS publishes, and the two do not add up to the total wherever public housing was approved. Figures are for the whole Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest statistical area, which usually covers more than one suburb, and are counts only - never divided by land area or population, and never combined into a score. The dashed line is the median of the 599New South Wales areas with a complete series - a typical area, for context, not a target or a pass mark.
Housing cost pressure
In Tea Gardens - Hawks Nest, 42.7% of renting households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, and 18.3% of households with a mortgage spend more than 30% on repayments - the ABS's stretched-household threshold (Census 2021).
How many households here are stretched by what they pay for housing. The 30% line is the ABS's own long-standing threshold - these are their published figures, not our calculation.
- Mortgage over 30% of income
- 18.3%
- Rent over 30% of income
- 42.7%
NSW avg 17.3%
Share of households WITH a mortgage whose repayments take more than 30% of income. That's 81 of 384 households with a stated repayment.
NSW avg 35.5%
Share of RENTING households whose rent takes more than 30% of income. That's 173 of 367 households with a stated rent.
The two figures cover different households - one counts only households paying off a mortgage, the other only households renting - so they are shown separately and must not be added or averaged. Income is the ABS's imputed household income; their published percentage also counts households that did not state a repayment or rent, which is why it does not equal the two counts above divided by each other. The grey marker on each bar is the NSW average, weighted by household base across the SA2s in the state that report each figure (622 for mortgage and 622 for rent), and is context only - not a target. Census 2021 - housing costs have moved since. Not financial advice.
Where did the loss come from?
-21Reading the streams: Australian movers from other suburbs drove most of the change.
Other SA2s in Port Stephens
The next zoom out - sorted by 1-year growth
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