An elevated village at 629 m altitude on the northern edge of the Southern Highlands — one of the Wingecarribee Shire's 'Northern Villages' — about 115 km south-west of the Sydney CBD and a 17 km drive north of Mittagong. Previously known as Hilltop and Jellore, Hill Top was established as a railway settlement in the 1880s on the Main Southern Railway (village gazetted 1916); after the line's 1919 deviation it sat on the Picton Loop line until that closed in 1978, and the old station platform can still be seen. Today it is a growing cool-climate bush town of 2,792 people (2021 census, up from 2,674 in 2016) known for its mix of permanent residents and weekender cottages, with a small commercial strip (pizzeria, bakery, chemist, general store, GP surgery), community hall and sporting clubs including the Hill Top Kookaburras soccer club (founded 1981) and the Hill Top Northern Villages Cricket Club.
At a Glance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Region | Southern Highlands |
| Council (LGA) | Wingecarribee Shire |
| Postcode | 2575 |
| Distance to Sydney CBD | Hill Top is roughly 115 km south-west of the Sydney CBD, about a 1¾ hour drive via Colo Vale to the Hume Motorway (the highway junction is… |
| Median house price | ~$790,000–$845,000 depending on tracker: realestate.com.au median sale price $790,000; auspropertyfinder median house price $823,000 over the 12 months to 2026 (NSW Valuer General sales data); OnTheHouse/Cotality median house value $839,362 (as at 31 May 2025) (mid-2026) |
| Median unit price | $703,472 — unit stock in Hill Top is negligible |
| Typical rent | ~$600–$700/week, a gross rental yield of roughly 4.4% (auspropertyfinder) |
| Price growth | +1.2% on median house price over the past 12 months (auspropertyfinder… |
Transport
Hill Top has no operational railway station: the village's station on the Picton Loop line closed with the line in 1978 and only the old platform remains. The nearest station with regular passenger services is Yerrinbool on the Main South line, about 5.9 km away in the adjacent suburb (auspropertyfinder, NSW Valuer General suburb data). Public bus coverage is very limited — transport options in the village are dominated by school services (Berrima Buslines/Picton-area school routes such as S856, S857, S861 and S875 stop near Hill Top), so the town is largely car-dependent.
Schools
Hill Top Public School — NSW government primary school (Kindergarten to Year 6), founded 1884, on Linda St in the village, with around 230 students from Hill Top and the surrounding area (NSW Department of Education School Infrastructure; school website). It is the only school in Hill Top; there is no secondary school in the village (NSW Department of Education; auspropertyfinder catchment data).
Shopping & Amenities
Hill Top's small village commercial centre includes a pizzeria, bakery, chemist, general store, liquor store, real estate agency and a GP's surgery, plus community facilities such as a post office, tennis courts, sporting fields, day-care centre, fire station, church and community hall. The town is home to the Southern Highlands Rifle Club's shooting range, and local sporting life centres on the Hill Top Kookaburras soccer club and the Hill Top Northern Villages Cricket Club.
Parks & Outdoors
Hill Top sits in an attractive bushland setting at the edge of the Southern Highlands escarpment, with the Nattai National Park wilderness bordering the suburb to the west. Bush blocks and large lots are part of the village character, and remnants of the closed Picton Loop railway — including the old Hill Top station platform and rail corridor — offer local heritage walks. Community recreation is village-based: tennis courts, sporting fields and the Southern Highlands Rifle Club range.
Property Market
The median house price in Hill Top was around ~$790,000–$845,000 depending on tracker: realestate.com.au median sale price $790,000; auspropertyfinder median house price $823,000 over the 12 months to 2026 (NSW Valuer General sales data); OnTheHouse/Cotality median house value $839,362 (as at 31 May 2025) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Hill Top is a genuinely affordable entry point to the Southern Highlands relative to Bowral/Mittagong, though medians still rose ~466% since 2001 (auspropertyfinder). Trackers cluster around $0.79–0.85M for houses — earlier higher estimates are not supported by 2025–26 sales data; a typical recent sale: 5 Samuel St, Hill Top sold for $800,000 in April 2025 (Raine & Horne). Median land value is $456,000 (NSW Valuer General, 2025 base, via auspropertyfinder), reflecting the large bush lots many buyers seek for weekender or hobby-farm use. Weekend/holiday cottage demand and 'tree-changer' interest in Wingecarribee keep the market ticking over, but sales volumes are modest for a village of ~1,180 properties.
New Developments
No large master-planned release is underway in Hill Top itself; growth is incremental — infill subdivision and vacant lots within the village (e.g. vacant lots on Casuarina St and other streets) plus extensions of hobby-farm properties on the village fringe. Wingecarribee Shire more broadly has been flagged as one of Australia's property hotspots for 'tree-changers' as remote work spreads, underpinning steady demand in villages like Hill Top (allhomes/Property Hub). Local infrastructure investment is largely school-based, such as Hill Top Public School's completed 'Cooler Classrooms' climate program (NSW Department of Education School Infrastructure).
Jobs & Local Economy
Employment in Hill Top itself is small-scale — the village's retail strip (general store, bakery, pizzeria, chemist, real estate agency), its public school (~230 students) and local trades and services. Most working residents commute to the Wingecarribee Shire's main employment and service centres — Mittagong is a 17 km drive north, with Bowral and Moss Vale beyond — or to the Sydney region for part of the working week, a pattern typical of the shire's northern villages.
Nearby Suburbs
Balmoral, Yerrinbool, Colo Vale
Sources & method
Researched 5 September 2026 from named public sources — census and government records, transport authorities, council and planning documents — plus published sales data. Where sources disagree on a figure, the guide says so rather than picking one.
Sources cited in this guide:
Corrections are welcome — if something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
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