Area profile
A quick snapshot of Hay Shire, drawn from official ABS estimates and the NSW Government's council data. Hay sits on the Murrumbidgee River in the far-western Riverina, where the Sturt Highway meets the Cobb Highway, in the middle of the Hay Plains — widely described as one of the flattest landscapes in the world. It is one of the largest local government areas in the Riverina by area and one of the smallest by population.
New to these terms? Read them in plain English
- Local Government Area (LGA)
- The official area a council governs.
- Estimated Resident Population (ERP)
- The official population count for an area.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
- The national statistics agency behind population figures.
The area at a glance
- Population (ERP, 2023–24)
- 2,861ABS Estimated Resident Population, per OLG time-series data.
- Area
- 11,325.9 km²Roughly ten times the area of Leeton Shire, with about a quarter of the people.
- Population density
- ~0.25 people per km²About one resident for every four square kilometres.
- Region
- Riverina, NSW — on the Murrumbidgee River, on the Hay Plains
- Council classification
- Rural (OLG group 9)
- Main centres
- Hay (council seat), and the villages of Booligal and MaudeHay is at the junction of the Sturt, Cobb and Mid-Western Highways; Booligal sits on the Cobb Highway on the Lachlan River, north of Hay, and Maude is downstream on the Murrumbidgee.
- What the economy runs on
- Merino wool and sheep meat, beef feedlots, irrigated cropping including rice, horticulture, and road freightThe council describes the shire as one of Australia's leading merino wool regions, with some 26 studs on the Riverine Plains, alongside a growing sheep-meat and beef-feedlot sector. Irrigated crops include rice, maize, cotton, wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, sunflowers and legumes; Hay has a rice receival depot able to dry up to 32,000 tonnes at a time, and the district is a significant producer of lettuce, broccoli, safflower, pumpkins, tomatoes, garlic and melons for the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane markets.
Suburbs & postcodes
- Hay2711
- Hay South2711
- Booligal2711
- Maude2711
- One Tree2711
- Burrabogie2711
On the map
The shaded area is the official Local Government Area boundary.
The list above is a selection of the localities in the Hay Shire LGA; the whole shire falls within postcode 2711. The shaded area on the map is the official Local Government Area boundary (OpenStreetMap administrative boundary for Hay Shire Council). Hay's historic sites include the Dunera Museum at the restored 1882 Hay railway station, which tells the story of the internment and prisoner-of-war camps operated at Hay between 1940 and 1946; Shear Outback, the Australian Shearers' Hall of Fame; and the Hay Gaol Museum, in the gaol opened in December 1880. Hay Shire Council is a member of the Riverina and Murray Joint Organisation (RAMJO), and acknowledges the Wiradjuri, Nari Nari and Yitha Yitha people as the traditional custodians of the land and waterways in the shire.
Sources — check it yourself
- Your Council (NSW Government) — Hay · ABS ERP 2023–24
- Hay Shire Council — An overview of Hay Shire (economy, RAMJO) · 2026
- Office of Local Government — Time-Series Data 2023–24 (population, area, classification) · 2023–24
- The Riverina — Hay Plains, one of the flattest and most expansive landscapes in the world
- Hay Shire (Wikipedia)
- Hay, New South Wales (Wikipedia) — Dunera Museum, Hay Gaol, highways
Figures are current as at the dates shown and may change — always confirm with the linked source. See the notice at the bottom of the page for full details and how to report a correction.