Upper Macdonald, NSW 2775

Upper Macdonald is a small, remote rural village about 108 km north of Sydney in the City of Hawkesbury, set along the upper reaches of the Macdonald River (a tributary of the Hawkesbury River) north of St Albans. The village was formerly known as Howick, and Upper Macdonald was counted as part of the neighbouring St Albans suburb at the 2011 census, when the combined area had a population of 305. It is the quiet, sparsely settled top end of the Macdonald Valley — a landscape of valley farms, acreage and bush blocks, river frontage and winding gravel-and-sealed valley roads, with no shops and no services, known mainly to anglers, weekenders and buyers chasing acreage seclusion.

At a Glance

Transport

There is no railway station and no scheduled bus service: the Macdonald Valley has no scheduled bus or rail service at all, so Upper Macdonald is reached by car only (in-the-suburbs.com.au). The usual route from Sydney runs via the Old Northern Road to Wisemans Ferry, across the Hawkesbury on the Webbs Creek vehicular ferry and up the St Albans Road through the valley; the road into Upper Macdonald (Upper Macdonald Road) branches off the valley road just before St Albans and continues north along the river (On The Dirt). Upper Macdonald's own Wikipedia entry carries no transport section — the suburb has no public transport infrastructure. Nearest train stations are at Windsor/Richmond in the lower Hawkesbury, a long drive south (approx).

Schools

No school is located in Upper Macdonald itself. The Macdonald Valley's government primary — Macdonald Valley Public School, a K–6 comprehensive school at 1331 St Albans Road — serves the valley from Central Macdonald, south of St Albans and roughly 15–20 km down the valley road from Upper Macdonald's river reach; school-aged children travel by road, and Upper Macdonald Road properties are within the school's catchment. Secondary students travel to government high schools in the lower Hawkesbury — the Macdonald Valley catchment feeds the Windsor high school area.

Shopping & Amenities

Upper Macdonald has no shops, cafes or commercial services of its own. The nearest services are in the adjacent St Albans village to the south: the Settlers Arms Inn — a heritage hotel established in 1836 that once served Cobb & Co stagecoaches — at 1 Wharf Street, plus the St Albans Village Market and the community-run St Albans School of Arts hall on Upper Macdonald Road (Settlers Arms Inn; St Albans Village Market directory). Day-to-day shopping requires the longer drive down-valley to Wisemans Ferry or the lower Hawkesbury towns (approx).

Parks & Outdoors

The Macdonald River is the suburb's defining outdoor asset — the valley's river frontage supports fishing, kayaking and riverside camping along the upper reaches, and the suburb's name simply describes the river's upper valley. The surrounding country is rugged bush and farmland: the Macdonald River valley is enclosed by ranges, and the drive up the valley from the Webbs Creek ferry crossing on the Hawkesbury River is itself a scenic bushland route. With no formal parks or reserves listed within the suburb, recreation here is land- and river-based on private acreage and the river itself (approx).

Property Market

The median house price in Upper Macdonald was around No reliable recent sale median — the market is extremely thin. OnTheHouse reports a median house value of $769,571 for Upper Macdonald (65 properties) while noting a −12.99% median-value change over 5 years, and realestate.com.au's comparable St Albans data put the median sold house price at about $630,000 over the past year with individual acreage sales ranging widely (a 34,475 m² property at 421 Upper Macdonald Road, St Albans, sold for $1,050,000 in 2025) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Sales volume is extremely thin — typically a handful of acreage sales a year or fewer — so every tracker median swings wildly and some sales are recorded under neighbouring St Albans (many 'Upper Macdonald Road' addresses geocode to St Albans, 2775). OnTheHouse counts about 65 properties and reports no rental stock; stock is almost entirely free-standing houses and acreage (no units), much of it river frontage, hobby farms and bush blocks, with land size and river access driving individual prices far more than any suburb median. A realistic guide for lifestyle acreage sales runs very roughly $0.6M–$1.5M depending on land, improvements and river frontage, with the upper end of the hint range ($1M+) matching improved riverfront acreages.

New Developments

Minimal — no significant residential or commercial developments are recorded in the suburb. Upper Macdonald is a sparsely settled rural valley locality with no development pipeline reported by property trackers or council news; its Wikipedia article records no development history beyond the village's former identity as Howick.

Jobs & Local Economy

Local employment is minimal and rural: work centres on valley properties — small farms, acreage holdings and river-related activity — with no commercial or institutional employers in the suburb. Most residents commute out of the valley for work, driving to the lower Hawkesbury (Windsor–Richmond), the Central Coast or Sydney — journeys of 1.5–2.5 hours each way (in-the-suburbs.com.au; approximate).

Nearby Suburbs

St Albans, Webbs Creek, Womerah, Higher Macdonald

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:

• NSW Government

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.