The third least-earning post code includes Inverell Shire communities Ashford, Bonshaw, Pindaroi, Lime-stone and Atholwood. 

Areas nearby Inverell have also been ranked in the top 10, including Bingara, Bundarra and Emmaville.

“It certainly does surprise me,” Delungra District Development Council president Jim Townsend said. “But by the same token, Delungra has diminished as far as businesses and opportunities are concerned. Our employable people, businesses have been taken away from us.”

Mr Townsend has been a resident of Delungra since 1936. He has seen the decline of the town over several decades and felt the population was ageing. 

“It’s a general thing for smaller country towns,” Mr Townsend said.

He pointed to the recent closure of the grain store and services cut at the post office. Mr Townsend also felt the local population was compromised economically.

“Businesses that are in the town, they’re really not employing people permanently; it just casual and they’re at a minimum. Even, quite a few in the town work at the abattoirs, and most of their wages go into travelling costs,” he said.

Jackie Sheehan is another lifelong Delungra resident with children at the school. She said she was not surprised her town ranked as it did.

“It’s indicative of the ageing population, and also it encompasses all of our farming properties as well, and they’re not doing all that well, either. So it’s not just people on salaries that it’s including,” she said.

Penny Cracknell is a long-time Bundarra resident and said she has seen her community decline over the years. She was also unsurprised Bundarra made the list.

“No, because the largest proportion of the population are elderly, and they’re just aren’t professional people living there with the big incomes,” she said. “People who have children who finish school don’t stay, so there’s very few people in either Delungra or Bundarra aged 18 through 30,” Ms Sheehan added. Five of the top 10 lowest earning areas fall within the electorate for Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall. He said the figures are a statement of fact.

“But I don’t think that that should reflect poorly, or be a blight, on any of those communities at all,” he stated.

Mr Marshall felt each of the towns listed were wonderful, generous and said he hoped the report would not cast a poor light on those mentioned.

“Because they’re certainly not poor. They’re very rich in community spirit and the wonderful opportunities that are offered there, so I don’t see that the fact that those communities are listed in this report as a negative for them at all,” he said.

“It’s just a reflection of the fact that people in those communities do not earn as much, on average, as people in other communities.”