Rutherford, NSW 2320

Rutherford is a suburb in west Maitland. It has a Woolies, Coles & Aldi as well as various big retail chains. It’s under 4kms to Maitland CBD, 40kms to Newcastle and 20kms to vineyard country. The suburb is convenient with the New England highway going through it, a train station at Telarah and is a good enough place to live if you just want to live somewhere convenient and affordable.
The cons are that it’s a low socioeconomic area with 11% public housing and nearly 60% of residents earning <$1000/week (see www.microburbs.com.au). Its residents regularly report theft and property crime on the area’s social media pages. There’s a lot of hooning of dirt bikes and old cars and abandoned shopping trolleys in the parks and reserves. I’d recommend not living anywhere near or across from the shopping centre or near the highway. Having a close look on Google Earth will give you a good clue of where the public housing is.
There are some nice streets in Rutherford and it’s not the worst area to live, but it’s not a great area either. However the suburb is set to get better over time as house prices rise and more diverse people move in.