West Coast
TAS · 6 schools · 1 childcare service
4,320 residents - 15.7% are children under 15, median age 47.
Family-Fit score
Our method is published belowMixed for families - strongest on everyday amenities, weakest on socio-economic profile.
- Schools in the area · 20% of the score
- 60/100
- Childcare & early years · 15% of the score
- 10/100
- Everyday amenities · 15% of the score
- 100/100
- Getting around · 15% of the score
- 100/100
- Housing affordability · 15% of the score
- 75/100
- Families already here · 10% of the score
- 37/100
- Socio-economic profile · 10% of the score
- 0/100
TAS median 49/100
6 schools in this SA2 · average government-school ICSEA 898
TAS median 20/100
1 NQS-rated service nearby
TAS median 50/100
11 parks · 5 GPs · 4 supermarkets · 8 playgrounds
TAS median 50/100
5 train stations in this SA2 (no train-time data for TAS yet)
TAS median 50/100
Paying over 30% of income on housing: 6.2% of mortgage-holding households, 21.7% of renting households
TAS median 51/100
15.7% of residents are children aged 0–14 · 30.9% of families are couples with children
TAS median 22/100
SEIFA IRSAD decile 1 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: 44/100). It is context, not a pass mark.
How this score is calculated
Every input is a free, already-published government figure for the West Coast 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 TAS map →
Why “West Coast (Tas.)”? The ABS divides the larger suburb of West Coast 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 Queenstown, Rosebery, Zeehan, Strahan, Tullah, Gormanston, Granville Harbour and Trial Harbour and 3 more localities, drawn separately on the map above.
West Coast is a locality in the West Coast area of Tasmania. This profile draws on ABS population and Census figures, the ACARA school register and ACECQA childcare ratings for the West Coast (Tas.) SA2.
Living in West Coast
A smaller suburb. 1 NQS-rated childcare service nearby. Mostly detached family homes.
What families notice
- 11 parks mapped inside this SA2 (OpenStreetMap).
- 6 schools sit inside this SA2 - more choice than most areas this size.
- We don't have official school-zoning data for TAS yet (only VIC and NSW) - 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.
- 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 West Coast (Tas.) SA2 - ACARA schools register, ACECQA childcare ratings.
Government schools in West Coast
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.
Schools in West Coast (Tas.)
- Combined · Government · Years K-12Enrolment199ICSEA893
- Combined · Government · Years K-12Enrolment63ICSEA845
- Primary · Catholic · Years Prep-6Enrolment59ICSEA902
- Primary · Catholic · Years Prep-6Enrolment47ICSEA969
- Primary · Government · Years K-6Enrolment47ICSEA935
- Primary · Government · Years K-6Enrolment43ICSEA919
ICSEA reflects student intake context, not teaching quality (1000 = national average). All TAS schools →
Childcare & early learning
- Meeting NQSQueenstown Early Learning ServiceCentre-Based Care · 25 places · QueenstownRated Apr 2026
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
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 West Coast is safe. More on safety →
The suburbs in this area
Everything else on this page is published for West Coast (Tas.) as a whole - one ABS statistical area covering 11 separate gazetted suburbs. These are the figures published for each of the 9 the ABS publishes a profile for.
| Suburb | Residents Census 2021 | Schools |
|---|---|---|
| Queenstown | 1,808 | 2 |
| Rosebery | 752 | 2 |
| Zeehan | 722 | 1 |
| Strahan | 697 | 1 |
| Tullah | 202 | 0 |
| Gormanston | 32 | 0 |
| Granville Harbour | 30 | 0 |
| Trial Harbour | 21 | 0 |
| Lake St Clair | 9 | 0 |
2 smaller localities are also inside this area. The ABS publishes no separate census profile for them, so they have no row here.
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 - 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
10.8% of people here are school-age children (5–14) - about the Tasmania average of 11.5%, and 4.9% are under 5. The median age is 47.
- 0–4 years · before school
- 4.9%
- 5–14 years · school age
- 10.8%
- 15–19 years · teens
- 4%
- 20–34 years
- 16.9%
- 35–54 years
- 25.4%
- 55–64 years
- 17%
- 65 years and over
- 20.8%
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 West Coast (Tas.) (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 Tasmania average, population-weighted across the 99 SA2s in the state and shown for context only - it is not a target or a pass mark.
Households and families
49% of families here have children living at home - fewer than the Tasmania average of 54%. The largest overseas-born communities are United Kingdom (3.3%), New Zealand (1.6%) and South Africa (0.7%). 26% 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
- 30.9%
- One-parent family
- 17.9%
- Couple, no children
- 50.8%
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
- 94.9%
- Semi-detached / townhouse
- 2.7%
- Flat or apartment
- 1.3%
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
- 46.2%
- Owned with a mortgage
- 23.8%
- Rented
- 25.8%
TAS avg 37.6%
TAS avg 33.8%
TAS avg 26.7%
Figures describe West Coast (Tas.) (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census. The grey marker on each bar is the Tasmania average, population-weighted across the 99 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 West Coast (Tas.)
Top 5 overseas birthplaces shown · 93.3% born in Australia or a country not in the top five.
- United Kingdom · established by 2016
- 3.3%
- New Zealand · established by 2016
- 1.6%
- South Africa · growing since 2016
- 0.7%
- Nepal · growing since 2016
- 0.6%
- Germany · established by 2016
- 0.5%
TAS avg 4.1%
TAS avg 0.9%
TAS avg 0.1%
TAS avg 1%
TAS avg 0.2%
- Nearby
- Sheffield - Railton, Burnie - Ulverstone Surrounds and Waratah also have an established United Kingdom community.
- Settlement pattern
- Of overseas-born residents who stated when they arrived, 17% arrived in the last 5 years (2016–2021) (TAS avg 20.2%) and 61.7% 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, 4.3% 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 West Coast (Tas.) (ABS Statistical Area 2) at the 2021 Census. The grey marker on each bar is the Tasmania average, population-weighted across the 99 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 1 of 10
- Where this sits in TAS
- bottom 10% of Tasmania 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 West Coast (Tas.) 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, West Coast (Tas.) has grown older, with a smaller share of children and more residents born overseas.
- People counted
- −412 people since 2011
- Median age
- +8 years since 2011
- Children aged 0–14
- −4.8 pts since 2011
- Born overseas
- +3.1 pts since 2011
- Speak another language at home
- +1.9 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 Tasmania - up to 92, 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.
Lifestyle & getting around
Everything mapped inside the West Coast (Tas.) 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 TAS area so a number means something.
Everyday essentials
Supermarkets
Middle TAS area: 1
GPs & clinics
Middle TAS area: 0
Parks
Middle TAS area: 7
Playgrounds
Middle TAS area: 4
Train stations
Middle TAS area: 0
Libraries
Middle TAS area: 0
Community & recreation
Places of worship
Middle TAS area: 0
Community centres
Middle TAS area: 0
Swimming pools
Middle TAS area: 0
Sports centres
Middle TAS area: 1
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 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 · 96.3 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 West Coast (Tas.) 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 TAS area” is the median count across the 97 Tasmania 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 West Coast, in one place. Every line is an official published record for the West Coast (Tas.) area - we don't rate, score or rank any of them, and a line we can't answer says so.
-
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 presentMurchison Highway · Lyell Highway · Zeehan Highway · +5 more
8 named roads through this area carry OpenStreetMap's highest classification - a freeway, motorway or major highway, whatever the road is called locally, alongside 20 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 figure1.4% 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.
Hazard lines republish the extent of an official overlay across the whole West Coast (Tas.) 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
1 new home was approved in West Coast (Tas.) in the year to June 2025. Councils approved 45 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 the 3 of these 6 years where the breakdown is published
Townhouses & apartments
Private sector, over the 3 of these 6 years where the breakdown is published
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 West Coast (Tas.) 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 93Tasmania areas with a complete series - a typical area, for context, not a target or a pass mark.
Housing cost pressure
In West Coast, 21.7% of renting households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, and 6.2% 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
- 6.2%
- Rent over 30% of income
- 21.7%
TAS avg 10.1%
Share of households WITH a mortgage whose repayments take more than 30% of income. That's 27 of 376 households with a stated repayment.
TAS avg 34.2%
Share of RENTING households whose rent takes more than 30% of income. That's 103 of 425 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 TAS average, weighted by household base across the SA2s in the state that report each figure (96 for mortgage and 96 for rent), and is context only - not a target. Census 2021 - housing costs have moved since. Not financial advice.
Where did the gain come from?
+6Reading the streams: no single force dominated this year - the streams were close in magnitude.
Other SA2s in West Coast
The next zoom out - sorted by 1-year growth
- 01Waratah+0.3%3,980 ppl
- 02North West+0.2%4,400 ppl
- 03Wilderness - West+0.0%0 ppl
- 04Smithton-0.3%3,886 ppl
- 05King Island-0.7%1,647 ppl
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