Upper Hunter Shire

The towns of the Upper Hunter are Scone, Parkville, Aberdeen, Murrurundi, and Merriwa, as well as several villages, including Bunnan, Gundy, Moonan Flat, Ellerston, Wingen, Blandford and Cassilis. Of the towns, only Aberdeen on the Shire's southeastern border is situated on the Hunter River.

The Upper Hunter Shire has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• Ardglen, Main Northern railway: Ardglen Tunnel[7]
• Merriwa, Bow Street: Colonial Cottage Museum[8]
• Murrurundi, Main Northern railway: Murrurundi railway station[9]
• Murrurundi, Mount Street: Rosedale Cottage[10]
• Scone, 144 Kelly Street: Scone Civic Theatre[11]Scone, New South Wales
• Scone, 41 Kingdon Road: Old Court Theatre[12]
• Scone, Main Northern railway: Scone railway station[13]
• Wingen, Raglan Street: Mountain House, Wingen[14]

At the 2011 census, there were 13,754 people in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area, of these 49.9 percent were male and 50.1 percent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.9 percent of the population, which was higher than the national and state averages of 2.5 percent. The median age of people in the Upper Hunter Shire was 39 years, which was marginally higher than the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 21.2 percent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 16.4 percent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 51.6 per cent were married and 11.6 per cent were either divorced or separated.[15]

Population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire between the 2006 census and the 2011 census was 6.00 percent. When compared with the total population growth of Australia for the same period, at 8.32 percent, population growth in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area was slightly lower than the national average.[16] The median weekly income for residents within the Upper Hunter Shire was marginally lower than the national average.[15]

At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or Anglo-Saxon exceeded 85 percent of all residents (national average was 65.2 percent). In excess of 75% of all residents in the Upper Hunter Shire nominated a religious affiliation with Christianity at the 2011 census, which was considerably higher than the national average of 50.2 percent. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area had a significantly lower than average proportion (3.1 percent) where two or more languages are spoken (national average was 20.4 percent); and a significantly higher proportion (93.9 percent) where English only was spoken at home (national average was 76.8 percent).[15]

Selected historical census data for the Upper Hunter Shire local government area
Census year			2001	2006[16]	2011[15]
Population		Estimated residents on Census night	n/a	12,976	13,754
		LGA rank in terms of size within New South Wales
		% of New South Wales population			0.20%
		% of Australian population	n/a	0.07%	0.07%
Cultural and language diversity
Ancestry, top responses		Australian			36.6%
		English			32.4%
		Irish			8.2%
		Scottish			7.9%
		German			2.8%
Language, top responses (other than English)		Mandarin		n/c	0.2%
		Portuguese		n/c	0.2%
		Cantonese		0.2%	0.1%
		Arabic		n/c	0.1%
		Tagalog		0.1%	0.1%
Religious affiliation
Religious affiliation, top responses		Anglican		41.3%	39.3%
		Catholic		27.2%	26.9%
		No Religion		9.7%	13.4%
		Uniting Church		4.4%	5.6%
		Presbyterian and Reformed		3.2%	3.3%
Median weekly incomes
Personal income		Median weekly personal income		A$438	A$552
		% of Australian median income		94.0%	95.7%
Family income		Median weekly family income		A$1,090	A$1,392
		% of Australian median income		93.1%	94.0%
Household income		Median weekly household income		A$882	A$1,071
		% of Australian median income		85.9%	86.8%

The Upper Hunter is the largest horse-rearing region in Australia.

The Burning Mountain Nature Reserve, near Wingen, is the site of a subterranean coal seam fire that has been burning for several thousand years.[18]

The council also owns several FM rebroadcasters of Radio National and SBS Radio, under the self-help schemes run by those broadcasters.