Suburb Snapshot: Nerrina

The size of Nerrina is approximately 6.8 square kilometres and has 10 parks covering nearly 50.9 per cent of total area. The population of Nerrina in 2011 was 849 people and by the 2016 Census the population was 958 showing a population growth of 12.8 per cent in the area during that time.

Nerrina is an outer-urban area six kilometres north-east of Ballarat CBD with its name believed to be derived from an Aboriginal expression, and is an alternate for the original name of the Little Bendigo gold diggings (1851). In 1858 an Anglican school was opened in Little Bendigo, a small postal hamlet with several quartz crushing machines for the surrounding gold diggings. Two hotels were recorded as been established in the 1890s according to the Victorian municipal directory, which estimated the population to be about 400 people at that time.

As mining declined, the population dwindled, the school had 7 pupils in 1968, but after then Ballarat’s outer-urban growth began to repopulate the district. In 2014 the Little Bendigo school had 86 pupils, and its original building is on the Victorian Heritage Register.

CoreLogic data indicates that the predominant age group in Nerrina is 50- 59 years with households in Nerrina being primarily couples with children and are likely to be repaying $1,800 – $2,399 per month on mortgage repayments. And in general, people in Nerrina work in a professional occupation. In 2011, 91.7 per cent of the homes in Nerrina were owner-occupied compared with 90 per cent in 2016. Currently the median sales price of houses in the area is $625,000.

Source: Ballarat Times News Group