By Cassandra Morgan and Craig Butt
In Melbourne’s richest suburb, typical income earners make $81,000 a year. But the top 1 per cent of income earners in that area make one-and-a-half times that – in a single week.
Analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics personal income data by this masthead reveals that the top 1 per cent of income earners in Toorak earn almost $7.5 million a year on average, making it Melbourne’s only suburb where the top 1 per cent of income earners rake in more than $5 million a year on average.
Use the zoom controls on the map below to view the average income among the top 1 per cent of your suburb, along with the median and average income there. You can also find your Victorian suburb’s data in a searchable table further down in this article, as well as a version of this map that displays the data for the rest of the state.
In the Greater Melbourne region, there are 60 suburbs where the top 1 per cent earn between $1 million and $5 million on average, ranging from Flinders at the tip of the Mornington Peninsula to Woodend on the northern peri-urban fringe, but most of them are clustered in the inner-east.
Hawthorn South has the second-highest average income among its 1 percenters, where they recorded an average annual income of almost $4.9 million. South Yarra’s west is third on Melbourne’s rich list – its 1 per cent earn $4.3 million on average. Both of these suburbs share a border with Toorak.
Berwick North, 40 kilometres south-east of the CBD, is fourth on the list, but a way behind. The suburb’s top 1 per cent earn just shy of $3 million a year on average. In some neighbourhoods, the average income among the top 1 per cent is skewed higher by a few incredibly high earners – the top 0.1 per cent – driving up the average.
Toorak is home to Melbourne’s richest 1 per cent earners.Credit: Penny Stephens
The top 1 per cent of earners across Greater Melbourne make an average of $810,000 annually. That compares with an average annual income for all earners in the city of $75,000; the median income (the middle value of all earners) was $56,000.
KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said the distribution of wealth to Melbourne’s eastern suburbs aligned with proximity to high-paying jobs, along with some of the city’s best local amenities, including access to transport and schools.
It also correlated with patterns in Melbourne’s early development, when the east was prioritised over high manufacturing areas in the north and west.
“The outline of that highest-income blob lines up with the extent of the original tram network,” Rawnsley said.
“That’s the oldest part of Melbourne, and you can almost see that historical development – even 100 years plus later – still coming through.”
The analysis uses Australian Bureau of Statistics personal income figures, which draw on Tax Office records and account for individuals who submitted a tax return in the 2021-22 financial year, the most recent year available.
The data covers individual pre-tax income, including salary and wages, business income, rental income and dividends. It does not consider individuals’ assets, like property and shares.
‘Gobsmacking’: Data reveals inequality and excess
Toorak emerging as the front-runner in Melbourne’s rich list comes as no surprise to experts, but the average income of the suburb’s 1 per cent quantifies its extraordinary wealth and inaccessibility.
Australian National University demographer Liz Allen said Toorak’s 1 per cent earn one-and-a-half times the area’s median annual income of $81,000 every week. The data analysis revealed “the enormous excess at the top of the socio-economic spectrum”, and massive inequality even in affluent suburbs, she said.
“This kind of analysis offers a window into the failings of contemporary economic systems,” Allen said.
“There’s nothing new in the geographic spread of inequality, and so there are no surprises that Toorak is on top here of the leaderboard. What is utterly gob smacking is the level of excess here.
“For me, it feels like the return of the feudal Middle Ages.”
Morrell and Koren buyer’s advocate Matthew Cleverdon, who has negotiated property sales worth more than $30 million, said the ultra-wealthy were attracted to Toorak as Victoria’s “ultimate blue-chip suburb”.
“It’s a suburb that is synonymous with big homes. Successful and powerful families have for generations lived there,” Cleverdon said.
“It’s generally considered quite a safe place to put your money into property, due to the fact that there’s always more and more people looking to live there.
“It is the most famous suburb in Victoria, one that everyone knows.”
Buyer’s advocate Matthew Cleverdon. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Oliver Booth, partner of luxury real estate agency Kay & Burton, said international buyers currently outnumber local buyers at inspections for Toorak homes worth more than $10 million.
Locals who could afford the area were willing to do “whatever it takes” to buy in the suburb, he said.
“We are witnessing the start of a generational wealth transfer and as a result, it means for some, being able to purchase in the area,” Booth said.
Allen said it is a “tale as old as time” that inequality has a geographic concentration, “but the rich are getting richer while the middle class is being ravaged by a cost of living crisis”.
“The only thing that separates someone in the top 1 per cent and the bottom 1 per cent are the circumstances of their birth,” Allen said.
Clusters of wealth near ocean, acreage
In regional and rural Victoria, there are three suburbs where the top 1 per cent of earners make more than $1 million on average.
Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, tops the regional rich list, where its top 1 per cent of earners bring in about $1.25 million annually, compared with a median income there of $64,000 a year.
Lorne/Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road rank second, with the 1 per cent earning an average of $1.1 million. The final rural or regional suburb where the 1 per cent earn more than $1 million is Ballarat.
“[The inclusion of] Anglesea in the Surf Coast once again reflects a high-amenity location where people have made plenty of money,” Rawnsley said.
“You also saw a similar clustering out in the Yarra Valley.
“People might have made their money through business, and they’re out there on that cliff-top, ocean view property, or on large acreage in the Yarra Valley.”
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