Macalister is in Western Downs LGA, QLD, postcode 4406, with population 156.
The page is still useful for local context, but the evidence stack is too thin for a clean one-page call. Use nearby stronger suburbs or compare mode before treating it as a serious shortlist decision.
Evidence depth is verify-heavy, so the profile should be treated as provisional. The page is thin enough that nearby alternatives should be checked before shortlisting. Small local population makes the signal set more fragile.
Price series isn't recorded for this suburb. Census housing data is shown instead.
43% of homes here are owner-occupied and 45% rented, with 5% of landlords negatively geared.
45% rented — renter-heavy areas turn over faster and are more exposed to rate moves and investor sentiment.
ABS Census 2021 tenure (G37), ATO postcode rental statistics, and QuickProperty's investor-exposure index. Owner-occupied = owned outright + with a mortgage.
This suburb 17% · QLD median 19%
Nationally · lighter rent burden than 60% of AU suburbs
At the median asking rent, about 15% of households here would spend more than 30% of income on rent (rent stress line: $833/wk income).
Getting to work: 56% drive, 0% public transport, 0% walk or cycle, 26% worked from home (2021 Census, taken during COVID-era work-from-home arrangements).
Building due diligence
The National Construction Code is the baseline. Local hazards and site classifications can change the required structure, materials, fixings, insulation and detailing.
About 6.9% of the suburb intersects mapped bushfire-prone land.
May affect: External construction · Roof and wall systems · Openings, screens and decks
Confirm the NCC climate zone used for the building design and energy provisions.
May affect: Insulation and glazing · Condensation control · Roof-space ventilation
A suburb layer cannot determine the site wind classification or Bushfire Attack Level.
May affect: Structure and tie-downs · Cladding and fixings · Openings and bushfire detailing
Confirm marine or corrosive exposure and the applicable termite-management requirements.
May affect: Fasteners and connectors · Roofing and coatings · Termite management
This screen identifies investigation triggers, not building quality or property compliance. Confirm the address, design and current jurisdiction rules with the council, building surveyor or certifier, designer and engineer.
NCC 2022 Housing Provisions: how to use · NCC 2022 Volume Two and Housing Provisions
Estimated exposure to NSW RFS Bush Fire Prone Land (CC BY), point-sampled across the suburb. This shows how much of the suburb sits within the official hazard layer — it is not a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating or a property-level assessment. Obtain a BAL assessment (AS 3959) for an individual property.
ABS population projection (2022 base) for the Wambo SA2 statistical area — the finest official projection grain available; suburb-level projections do not exist.
Located in Queensland within the Western Downs local government area, Macalister is a sparsely populated locality (postcode 4406). It is home to about 156 residents, with a settled mid-life population and a median age of 40. Households earn a median income of $76K per year, with an average household size of 2.5 people. Recent annual estimates show population movement staying broadly stable across the broader catchment, with population growth running at +0.6% year-on-year at the LGA level. QLD employment has moved +1.5% year-on-year in the official ABS Labour Force trend series, which provides the broader jobs backdrop for this suburb. QLD also had 35 Commonwealth-backed major projects under construction, 16 underway, and 30 in planning as at 2025-09-01, which is useful as a broader delivery backdrop rather than a suburb-specific project count. The most common occupations are managers, machinery operators & drivers, community & personal service. Employment in the area leans toward agriculture and education. The top ancestries reported are English, Australian, German.
The median weekly rent is $250 (Census 2021).
The crime rate in the Western Downs LGA is moderate at 6,244 incidents per 100,000 population.
From an investment perspective, Population growth of +0.6% year-on-year points to stable demand fundamentals. Building approvals have changed +0% year-on-year, indicating steady development activity.
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Macalister leans on evidence that should be verified before a decision.
QuickProperty mixes release files, Census baselines, and matched local services on this page. Read the status panel before treating every metric as equally fresh.
QVAS residential dwelling sales aggregated to SA2 and mapped to suburb pages
This gives you directional coverage, but it is weaker than a current rent release.
Schools, transport, and hospitals are useful as presence signals, but they still have different source cadences.
This page stays indexable because Macalister is a real locality with enough context to be directionally useful. The tradeoff is that coverage is lighter than a stronger suburb profile, so the read should stay cautious.
Small-population localities can still be worth checking, but rankings, comparisons, and broad suburb assumptions become noisier faster.
The lighter areas here are school matches, hospital coverage, and transport stops, so a single-page read should carry less weight than usual.
Start here for context, then open compare, the state hub, or larger nearby suburbs before treating this as a complete market decision.
This page remains visible, but it should be read as a locality brief rather than a full-confidence suburb profile.
Use this page to set direction, not to close a decision — frame the locality here, then confirm with compare, stronger nearby suburbs, and the state hub.
If Macalister feels too thin on its own, use these nearby suburbs as stronger local reads before making a shortlist decision.
pop same · rent -$19/wk
Similar local read: useful for context, but still compare the actual market signals.
pop same · rent -$30/wk
Similar local read: useful for context, but still compare the actual market signals.
Macalister is in the Western Downs Local Government Area, QLD, postcode 4406. Council-level context for Western Downs LGA (suburb mix, population, rent, and price coverage) is available on the QuickProperty LGA page.
The median weekly rent in Macalister is $250/wk, based on ABS Census 2021 rent fallback.
QuickProperty's investment signals for Macalister show: Stable, Steady. These are computed from price, rent, income, and population data — not an opaque score.
Property prices come from state Valuers General offices and ABS Data by Region. Demographics are from ABS Census 2021. School ICSEA scores are from ACARA. Crime statistics are from state police agencies. Transport data is sourced from GTFS feeds.
Property prices update quarterly. RBA macro indicators update with each deploy. Demographics are from Census 2021. School ICSEA scores are from ACARA 2025.