← Oberon Council
Area profile

Area profile

A quick snapshot of the Oberon local government area, drawn from official ABS estimates and the NSW Government's council data. Oberon sits on a high plateau in the NSW Central Tablelands — the town is about 1,113 metres above sea level, on the western side of the Blue Mountains and roughly an hour south-east of Bathurst. It is cold-climate country that regularly sees snow, and its economy runs on softwood plantation forestry and timber processing alongside grazing, potatoes and other cool-climate vegetables, and a growing tourism trade built on the Jenolan Caves, Kanangra-Boyd and Abercrombie River national parks and Mayfield Garden.

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.
See the full explainer, with formulas →

The area at a glance

Population (ERP, 2023–24)
5,604ABS Estimated Resident Population, per OLG time-series data. Council's 2026 waste strategy cites a forecast of about 5,808 by 2041 and roughly 1,648 private dwellings across the LGA.
Area
3,625.0 km²
Population density
~2 people per km²One of the more sparsely settled LGAs in the Central Tablelands — the area is more than three times the size of the Leeton or Blayney LGAs with a fraction of the population.
Region
Central Tablelands, NSW — bounded by Bathurst Regional, Lithgow, Blue Mountains, Wollondilly and Upper Lachlan
Council classification
Large Rural (OLG group 10)
Main centres
Oberon (council seat) plus the villages of Black Springs, Burraga, O'Connell, Edith, Shooters Hill and HazelgroveTimber is the anchor industry: Borg Manufacturing runs a large particleboard, MDF, moulding and melamine plant in Oberon, the Highland Pine Products sawmill (a joint venture in which AKD holds a half share) processes plantation softwood, and Bettergrow operates a wood-processing, composting and landscape-supplies facility in the LGA. Grazing for prime lambs and beef, potatoes and other vegetables, and tourism round out the local economy.
Elevation & climate
Oberon town sits about 1,113 m above sea levelCouncil describes clean air, cool summers, snowy winters and four distinct seasons. Black Springs, on the Great Dividing Range, is higher again at about 1,210 m.
Amalgamation history
The 2016 proposal to merge Oberon with Bathurst Regional did not proceedIn January 2016 the Minister for Local Government referred a proposal to merge the Bathurst Regional and Oberon local government areas to a Delegate for examination and report under the Local Government Act; the examination report is published by the Office of Local Government / Local Government Boundaries Commission. The merger did not proceed, and Oberon Council is listed as a current standalone council in the OLG's council directory. Council's current website carries no active amalgamation material.

Suburbs & postcodes

On the map

The shaded area is the official Local Government Area boundary.

The suburb list and postcodes are a selection of the localities in the Oberon Council LGA; the LGA also takes in Isabella, Essington, Gingkin, Mount Olive and the Jenolan Caves area. The shaded area on the map is the official Local Government Area boundary (OpenStreetMap administrative boundary for Oberon Council).

Sources — check it yourself

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.