A tiny, remote rural riverside suburb on the south bank of the Hawkesbury River, downstream from Wisemans Ferry, about 79 km north-west of the Sydney CBD. Named after John Laughton, who arrived as a crewman on the Stirling Castle in 1835, absconded in Sydney and settled here in the 1840s as a boatbuilder and orchardist; today most of the farms have gone and many houses are used as weekenders, with caravan parks catering for water skiers and fishermen close by (The Dictionary of Sydney). At the 2021 census just 102 people lived across roughly 27 km² of heavily wooded terrain — a population density of about 4 per km² — making it one of the quieter settlements along the river, with no shops or commercial services in the suburb. The Dharug people are the traditional custodians of the area (InTheSuburbs).
At a Glance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Region | Upper North Shore |
| Council (LGA) | Hornsby Shire |
| Postcode | 2775 |
| Distance to Sydney CBD | Laughtondale is about 79 km north-west of the Sydney CBD and has no direct public transport to the city — travel is entirely by car via… |
| Median house price | ≈$1.8M–$1.9M (thin-market tracker estimates only — median house value $1,798,476 as at 31 Jul 2026, Cotality via OnTheHouse, and median sale price $1,902,683 per view.com.au; no statistically robust sales median exists) (mid-2026) |
| Typical rent | No rental stock — OnTheHouse lists no properties for rent in Laughtondale and InTheSuburbs reports no median rent for the suburb |
| Price growth | Houses −7.35% in median value over 5 years — meaningless as a trend given only 3 sales in the past 12 months |
Transport
There is no railway station and no public transport service into Laughtondale itself — the locality is accessed by road via Singleton Road off Old Northern Road and is very car-dependent, with all errands requiring a car (InTheSuburbs). The nearest railway stations are Hawkesbury River station at Brooklyn, about 20 km away on the T1 Central Coast & Newcastle Line, or Windsor station on the T1 Richmond line roughly 40 km to the south-west. The only bus in the district is the very infrequent Busways route 672 (roughly ten services a week) along Old Northern Road between Windsor and Wisemans Ferry, which does not run into Laughtondale itself.
Schools
No school operates within Laughtondale itself — Wikipedia lists no education facilities in the suburb. Primary-aged children of the district are served by NSW government schools in the immediately adjacent river settlements: Wisemans Ferry Public School on Old Northern Road in the neighbouring Wisemans Ferry village, and Maroota Public School at 4540 Old Northern Road in the adjacent Maroota locality to the south-west. There is no secondary school in the suburb or its immediate neighbours.
Shopping & Amenities
Laughtondale has no shops, cafes, commercial services or village centre of any kind, and no supermarket anywhere in the suburb — residents rely on Wisemans Ferry or the larger centres of Windsor and Hornsby for daily needs (InTheSuburbs). The nearest services are in the adjacent Wisemans Ferry township, which offers the Wisemans Inn hotel (a historic riverbank pub on Old Northern Road), a general store, fuel and river-tourism businesses of the ferry precinct.
Parks & Outdoors
The Hawkesbury River frontage is the suburb's defining feature — Laughtondale sits on the banks of the Hawkesbury downstream from Wisemans Ferry, and the river is popular for water skiing, fishing, boating and swimming, with caravan parks close to Laughtondale catering for water skiers and fishermen (The Dictionary of Sydney; InTheSuburbs). The locality covers about 27 km² of heavily wooded, native-bushland terrain rising from the river, offering a secluded, off-the-grid bushland lifestyle with scenic river frontage and bushwalking (InTheSuburbs). The area is Dharug country, and the ferry crossing at adjacent Wisemans Ferry gives access to the national-park bushland of the far bank.
Property Market
The median house price in Laughtondale was around ≈$1.8M–$1.9M (thin-market tracker estimates only — median house value $1,798,476 as at 31 Jul 2026, Cotality via OnTheHouse, and median sale price $1,902,683 per view.com.au; no statistically robust sales median exists) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. One of the thinnest property markets in the Sydney region: Laughtondale has only about 67 properties and just 3 sales in the 12 months to Jul 2026, with 1 property listed for sale and none for rent. The two available tracker figures are automated valuation estimates, not true sales medians — individual riverfront acreage and weekender holdings trade across a very wide band, with nearby riverside sales in the district as low as $875,000 (1494 Singleton Rd, Singletons Mill, Feb 2026). Treat any single number as indicative only.
New Developments
Essentially none — Laughtondale has no residential estates, subdivisions or commercial projects on record, and OnTheHouse lists just 1 property for sale suburb-wide with no development or investor data published for the locality. Development is constrained by the suburb's remote rural character on a flood-prone Hawkesbury River reach, with the area's history and riverside bushland setting protected under Hornsby Shire's rural planning framework.
Jobs & Local Economy
Local economic life is rural and river-based: with just 102 residents and no commercial centre, the suburb's tiny workforce is tied to acreage properties, weekender holdings and the river-recreation economy — the caravan parks and water-skiing/fishing trade described in the Dictionary of Sydney — while retail and service jobs are concentrated in the adjacent Wisemans Ferry tourist precinct and, further afield, Windsor and Hornsby (The Dictionary of Sydney; InTheSuburbs).
Nearby Suburbs
Canoelands, Gunderman, Leets Vale, Maroota, Spencer, Wisemans Ferry
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.
Back to all Sydney suburb guides.