Pheasants Nest is a small, remote rural village and highway locality in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, near Bargo in Wollondilly Shire, roughly 101 km south-west of the Sydney CBD on the Hume Highway corridor. At the 2021 census it had 716 residents, with 85.3% of homes owner-occupied — a mostly older, trades-based population. In practice the settlement is a service stop on the Hume: northbound and southbound roadhouses and an interchange between Picton and Yerrinbool, sitting in bushland on the edge of the Nepean River gorge. It was Dharawal and Gundungurra country before white settlement, and its name is said to come from ex-convict John Wilson describing the lyrebird as a 'pheasant'.
At a Glance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Region | Wollondilly |
| Council (LGA) | Wollondilly Shire |
| Postcode | 2574 |
| Distance to Sydney CBD | Pheasants Nest is about 101 km south-west of the Sydney CBD by road… |
| Median house price | ~$1.9–2.0M on an extremely thin market: CoreLogic via YIP put the house median at $1,918,750 on just 4 house sales in the 12 months to May 2026, while buyer's-agent data recorded $1,985,102 (Aug 2026) (mid-2026) |
| Typical rent | $718/week median house rent (buyer's-agent tracker, Aug 2026); CoreLogic via YIP shows no reliable rental series for the suburb |
| Price growth | +3.3% quarterly median growth ; +7.3% over 12 months per buyer's-agent data (Aug 2026) |
Transport
Pheasants Nest has no railway station and no scheduled local bus service — transport trackers score it 0/100 for public transport (SuburbCheck). Access is entirely road-based via the Hume Highway (Remembrance Driveway), which passes through the locality. The nearest railway stations are Bargo and Tahmoor, on the Southern Highlands line, in directly neighbouring suburbs — both a drive away from the highway village.
Schools
There is no school within Pheasants Nest itself — suburb data records no schools in the locality (SuburbCheck). Primary-school-age children from the area attend government schools in directly neighbouring suburbs, including Bargo Public School (Bargo), Tahmoor Public School (Tahmoor) and Wilton Public School (Wilton) (NSW Department of Education school sites).
Shopping & Amenities
Pheasants Nest's services are built around the highway: it has northbound and southbound roadhouse service centres on the Hume Highway, with the village also serving as the freeway interchange between Picton and Yerrinbool. The Ampol Pheasants Nest Highway Service Centre covers both carriageways — the southbound Ampol Foodary includes a restaurant and a Boost Juice outlet, and the northbound centre is home to Durk's Cafe + Eatery (Ampol; AGFG; NatRoad). The Pheasants Nest Rural Fire Brigade, a two-bay station with a Cat 1 tanker, is the other local facility. There is no conventional village shopping strip.
Parks & Outdoors
Pheasants Nest is a bushland locality of roughly 32.6 square kilometres, close to a third of it parks and open space. Its signature natural feature is the Nepean River gorge: Pheasants Nest bridge carries the Hume Highway across the deep Nepean River valley below. The surrounding scrub and river country was Dharawal and Gundungurra land, where early white settlers recorded the first sightings of koalas, lyrebirds and wombats.
Property Market
The median house price in Pheasants Nest was around ~$1.9–2.0M on an extremely thin market: CoreLogic via YIP put the house median at $1,918,750 on just 4 house sales in the 12 months to May 2026, while buyer's-agent data recorded $1,985,102 (Aug 2026) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Treat every Pheasants Nest median with caution — the market is vanishingly thin and results swing on a handful of acreage sales: YIP/CoreLogic $1,918,750, andreamonti.com.au $1,985,102, SuburbCheck ~$2.44M and property.com.au $2.67M for 5+ bedroom houses on 7 sales. Stock is almost entirely rural residential acreages; there is no meaningful unit market. This is a lifestyle/rural niche rather than an investment-grade market.
New Developments
Development in Pheasants Nest is essentially highway infrastructure rather than housing. The Hume Highway service centres at Pheasants Nest were rebuilt and redeveloped in the 2020s — Ampol opened its new Pheasants Nest Highway Service Centre on the Remembrance Driveway corridor, and the older centres were closed ahead of the redevelopment program (NatRoad; Get Regional). No residential estates or release areas are recorded for the locality; its population is roughly stable.
Jobs & Local Economy
Local employment at Pheasants Nest is minimal and tied to the road: the northbound and southbound roadhouses, fuel stops, cafes and restaurants are the main workplaces, alongside the volunteer Rural Fire Brigade. Census data shows residents predominantly work in trades occupations, and as a rural locality most working people travel out to jobs in nearby Bargo, Tahmoor, Picton, Mittagong or the wider Macarthur/Southern Highlands region.
Nearby Suburbs
Maldon, Wilton, Yanderra, Bargo, Tahmoor
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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