Winmalee, NSW 2777

Family-focused bushland suburb 77 km west of the Sydney CBD, carved out of Springwood and officially gazetted on 28 April 1972 after decades as 'North Springwood' — the name, said to be an Aboriginal word for 'north', was suggested by a pupil at the new local school. At the 2021 census it had 6,388 residents, 84.8% born in Australia, and households are predominantly couples with children. Housing is overwhelmingly owner-occupied (87% in 2021) and made up of 1970s-era and more recent family homes on bush blocks, with 15 parks covering about 14.4% of the suburb. Winmalee is surrounded by Blue Mountains National Park on its bushland edges, and its defining recent history is the October 2013 bushfires, which destroyed 193 homes across Springwood, Winmalee and Yellow Rock — much of the damage in Winmalee — followed by a long community recovery and rebuilding effort. The suburb has an active local life built around the Winmalee Village shopping centre, churches, sports clubs (Springwood United Football Club, Winmalee Netball Club) and a long-running volunteer Rural Fire Brigade that traces back to 1972.

At a Glance

Transport

Winmalee has no railway station — public transport is bus-based, with Blue Mountains Transit (CDC NSW) loop services connecting the suburb to Springwood station on the Blue Mountains Line in the adjacent suburb of Springwood: route 692W runs the Springwood–Winmalee loop, with the 692H (Springwood–Hawkesbury Heights) and 692Y (Springwood–Yellow Rock) loops also serving the Winmalee area (TransitApp; CDC NSW). The nearest station, Springwood, is on the NSW TrainLink Blue Mountains Line between Valley Heights and Faulconbridge. The Great Western Highway corridor and Hawkesbury Road are the main roads through the district.

Schools

Winmalee Public School — NSW government primary school whose first classes ran in late 1972, moving onto its permanent Winmalee site at the start of 1973 after pupils initially boarded at Springwood schools. Winmalee High School — NSW government comprehensive high school (Years 7–12) on High School Drive, officially established in 1985 and the first high school opened after the suburb gained its name. The Springwood district's Catholic schools — St Thomas Aquinas Primary School (opened 1920) and St Columba's Catholic College (secondary) — plus Springwood High School and Ellison and Springwood public schools serve the wider Springwood–Winmalee cluster just across the boundary in the adjacent suburb of Springwood.

Shopping & Amenities

Winmalee Village Shopping Centre at 32–44 White Cross Road is the suburb's hub — described as the first enclosed shopping centre in the Blue Mountains, anchored by a Coles supermarket with around 20 specialty retailers. The Australia Post office has moved into the village centre, and a smaller strip of shops on Hawkesbury Road includes a service station, car mechanic, takeaway, butcher, hair salon and general store. For a wider range of shops, the larger Springwood town centre along Macquarie Road lies just across the boundary in the adjacent suburb of Springwood.

Parks & Outdoors

Winmalee is surrounded on its bushland edges by the Blue Mountains National Park, giving residents direct access to national-park bushland, fire trails and lookouts. Within the suburb, 15 parks cover about 14.4% of the area, and it is home to Springwood United Football Club, Winmalee Netball Club and other local sporting clubs. The Winmalee Rural Fire Brigade, founded in 1972 at St Columba's, remains central to the community's bushfire preparedness.

Property Market

The median house price in Winmalee was around ~$1.03M (OnTheHouse/Cotality automated median house value of $1,033,948 as at 30 June 2026); sale-based trackers cluster lower: realestate.com.au put the median house price at $967,500 on 76 sales over 12 months (+15%), Allhomes $980,000 (+8.1%) and YIP/CoreLogic $1,065,000 on 100 sales (+9.23% p.a.) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Tracker spread on the median house price runs about $967k–$1.25M. Recent sales listed by Allhomes (Oct–Nov 2025) ranged from $866,000 to $1,400,000, mostly 3–4-bedroom houses. The market is detached-house dominated and strongly owner-occupied, with older couples-with-children families the typical household and an average resident age of 42. Stock is mostly 1970s–80s brick homes and newer rebuilds on bush blocks; units are rare. Some houses were rebuilt after the October 2013 bushfires destroyed 193 homes across Springwood, Winmalee and Yellow Rock.

New Developments

The defining development story of the past decade is post-bushfire rebuilding: the October 2013 fires destroyed 193 residential properties and damaged 109 across Springwood, Winmalee and Yellow Rock, and large parts of Winmalee's housing stock have since been rebuilt or renovated. The Winmalee Village shopping centre was refurbished in 2005. Beyond that, new development is modest infill on remaining large lots — growth is constrained by the national-park boundaries that ring the suburb and by bushfire-protection planning requirements.

Jobs & Local Economy

Retail and services at the Winmalee Village centre (Coles-anchored) and the Hawkesbury Road strip provide local jobs, along with the suburb's schools — Winmalee High School and Winmalee Public School are among the district's larger employers — plus the volunteer-staffed Winmalee Rural Fire Brigade and local sporting clubs. Most employed residents work in professional occupations and many commute out of the suburb to jobs in Springwood, Penrith or Sydney via Hawkesbury Road and the Blue Mountains Line.

Nearby Suburbs

Springwood, Faulconbridge, Yellow Rock, Hawkesbury Heights

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:

• Transport for NSW
• NSW Government

Corrections are welcome — if something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

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