Swan Hill Rural City Council is home to *21,403 people in the northwest of Victoria. From Robinvale and Boundary Bend in the north to Ultima and Lake Boga in the south, our municipality brings together communities with strong local identities and a shared sense of connection.
Our municipality welcomes people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, with around one in four residents born overseas and many speaking a language other than English at home. Our municipality has a median age of 39 and a household size of 2.5 people, in line with the Victorian average. A mix of younger families, older residents and volunteers all contribute to the community’s character.
The Mallee Climate Projections 2024 show that by 2050, Swan Hill is likely to be 1.5 °C warmer and have 4–8 % less annual rainfall than 1986–2005, meaning hotter summers, more very hot days, and drier conditions impacting farming, water, infrastructure, and health.
*2021 ABS data estimates the Swan Hill Rural Council residential population to be 21,403, however, due to ongoing concern that the ABS consistently underestimates the population of Robinvale, after the 2016 Census, Council commissioned Geografia to undertake a population determination study. The ABS census figure of 2021 showed the Robinvale population as 3740 people. The work of Geografia has reliably demonstrated that the true Robinvale population sits at approximately 7900 people; making the total residential population approximately 25,560