Kewarra Beach

Development Activity

Demographics

The median age of 43 is 3.0 years above national, and the suburb is aging quickly: the senior share rose 10.5 points while the working-age share fell 4.4 points over the decade. Overseas-born residents reach 28.8%, which is 7.2 points above national, giving a more international profile than the inland Cairns average. Ancestry leans Anglo-Celtic, led by English (2,671), Scottish (685) and Irish (647), with German (374) the largest continental group. The top non-English languages are German (41), Japanese (36) and Italian (27). University qualifications at 28.2% run 1.9 points below national, and the average household size of 2.5 matches national exactly, consistent with a mix of established couples and families. Couples with children (1,923 families) outnumber couples without (1,591).

Tenure tilts toward mortgaged ownership: 43.7% of households carry a mortgage, 32.2% own outright and 24.1% rent. Mortgage holders outnumbering outright owners points to a buyer base still building equity rather than long-settled wealth. The stock is overwhelmingly detached at 92.5% of dwellings, with apartments at just 5.0% and semi-detached at 2.5%, so the market offers almost no high-density alternative. Bedrooms skew large, with 50.4% of homes having four or more and 40.7% having three. The median house price of $514,000 keeps the mortgage-to-income ratio at 22.9% and rent-to-income at 24.3%, both below the 30% stress line. That affordability is the suburb's defining housing feature given household incomes only in the 61.2nd percentile nationally.

Community Profile

Economy & Employment

The local workforce is anchored in Healthcare, which leads at 21.5% of jobs (470 workers), well above its national weight, followed by Construction at 11.1% (243) and Education at 11.1% (242), with Public Admin at 9.0% and Hospitality at 6.5%. By occupation, Professionals (625) lead, then Community/Personal services (445) and Clerical/Admin (380), a service-economy mix rather than a finance or tech base. Unemployment is moderate at 4.9% and the full-time employment rate is 62.1%, with participation at 60.3%, held down by 1,481 residents not in the labour force given the older median age of 43. SEIFA places the suburb mid-table: decile 7 on IRSD and IER but decile 6 on IRSAD and IEO, an average-advantage profile consistent with incomes in the 61.2nd percentile.

Transport to Work

Car dependence is near total: 90.2% of residents drive to work while only 1.3% use public transport and 1.8% walk or cycle, well below national active-transport rates, a function of the suburb's spread-out 5.55 km2 beachside layout at 1,105 residents per km2. No schools are recorded inside the boundary in this dataset, so families rely on institutions in neighbouring Cairns suburbs, a practical trade-off for the low-density coastal setting. On advantage, the suburb scores decile 7 on IRSD for relative disadvantage and decile 6 on IRSAD, a middle-tier result, and 5.9% of residents (338 people) need daily assistance, slightly elevated in line with the median age of 43. Volunteering runs at 14.7%.

Population Forecast

Population has climbed 18.4% over the decade and the forward trend continues at 1.62% a year, or about 207 residents annually, classifying this as an established suburb still expanding steadily rather than a flat or declining one. Overseas migration is the primary driver, adding roughly 145 residents a year against 40 from internal moves. Yet the composition is shifting older: the senior share rose 10.5 points while the young share fell 5.1 points over ten years, and real incomes slipped 0.7% over the same period. The gentrification score reads 8, classified as not gentrifying, so growth is volume-led migration into an affordable, detached market rather than an upward price-driven repricing of the area.

National Ranking iPercentile rank among ~15,000 AU suburbs. 90% = higher than 90% of suburbs

How Kewarra Beach compares to ~15,000 Australian suburbs

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