Welcome to the Wollondilly Shire Council Population Forecasts

Wollondilly Shire is a large and diverse local government area on Sydney's southwestern fringe. A significant proportion of the Shire is covered by national parks, State forest and water catchment areas, particularly in the west and south east. Notable topographic features in the west include Lake Burragorang and Warragamba Dam, which supplies much of the water to the greater Sydney metropolitan area.

Settlement in the Shire is mainly confined to the Hume Freeway corridor, and encompasses towns and villages, as well as pockets of rural residential areas. The largest towns are Picton, Tahmoor and Thirlmere, which are located in the central part of the Shire off the Hume Freeway. Rural areas contain a variety of land uses, from grazing to more intensive activities, such as poultry and egg production, horse training and horticulture. There are also pockets of industrial and mining activity. In more recent years, agricultural land has come under increasing pressure from other uses, particularly as the Sydney metropolitan area expands south west and transport infrastructure improves.

European settlement dates from the first half of the nineteenth century. Picton was one of the first towns established in the Shire and retains its historical character today. The construction of the railway line encouraged further population growth, and villages were established around the stations. However, significant population growth and urban development in the Shire is a predominantly post-war phenomenon. This was spurred on by coal mining in the Tahmoor and Appin districts during the 1960s and 1970s and in more recent times by demand for housing created by Sydney's expansion to the southwest. Between 1981 and 2006, the population of Wollondilly more than doubled from just on 20,000 to 41,000, with marked growth in townships and rural residential areas. This was aided by greater access to employment in southwestern Sydney with major improvements to road transport in the area (Hume Freeway and Camden Bypass).

The primary housing market role that the Shire played in the post war era was to provide relatively affordable housing for young and mature families in a rural or semi-rural environment. This role will continue, as there are significant opportunities for greenfield development around established centres, particularly Picton, Tahmoor, Thirlmere and Wilton. Infill development will mainly occur in locations that have good access to services and facilities, and will increase the diversity of housing stock in the Shire. Concentrating development in and around existing centres allows the Shire to retain its semi-rural character.

Although the majority of areas in Wollondilly Shire attract a combination of young and mature families, there are some subtle differences. A case in point is Menangle - Razorback, where the development of aged accommodation and a retirement village influences the age structure of in-migrants, creating a dual housing market comprised of families and older couples/singles.