Data Sources

    SuburbScan uses official Australian government datasets to provide accurate, up-to-date property intelligence. All data is sourced from publicly available government databases.

    Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2021

    Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

    The 2021 Census of Population and Housing provides comprehensive demographic, social, and economic data for every suburb in Australia. This is the primary census dataset used on SuburbScan.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Population and median age
    • Household income, rent, and mortgage
    • Dwelling types and property ownership
    • Occupations and employment
    • Religion and cultural demographics
    • Vehicle ownership

    Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2016

    Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

    The 2016 Census provides historical demographic data, allowing SuburbScan to show trends and changes over time when compared with the 2021 Census.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Historical comparison for population, income, rent, mortgage, and demographic trends

    General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)

    State Transport Authorities

    Public transport stop locations and route data sourced from state transport authorities via GTFS feeds. SuburbScan uses this data to calculate a Transport Access Score for each property address.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Public transport stop locations within 1 km of an address
    • Route types (train, tram, bus, ferry, metro)
    • Transport Access Score (0–100) based on mode diversity, proximity, and stop density

    Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)

    Australian Government

    ACARA maintains the national school directory with details on every registered school in Australia, including location, sector (government, catholic, independent), and school type (primary, secondary, combined).

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Nearest schools by type (primary, secondary, combined)
    • Nearest schools by sector (government, catholic, independent)
    • School distance and walking time from a property address

    Crime Statistics Agency (VIC)

    Victorian Government

    Victoria's Crime Statistics Agency publishes recorded criminal incidents by suburb, including offence categories such as assault, theft, property damage, and drug offences.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Recorded offences by category and year for Victorian suburbs

    Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (NSW)

    NSW Government (BOCSAR)

    BOCSAR provides detailed crime data for New South Wales, including recorded incidents by offence type and location.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Recorded offences by category and year for NSW suburbs

    South Australia Police

    SA Government

    SA Police publishes crime statistics by suburb, covering offence categories relevant to community safety.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Recorded offences by category and financial year for South Australian suburbs

    Queensland Police Service (QPS)

    Queensland Government

    QPS publishes crime statistics by suburb via their Crime Map API, covering offence categories by calendar year.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Recorded offences by category and year for Queensland suburbs

    Western Australia Police Force

    WA Government

    WA Police publishes crime statistics by suburb, covering offence categories by calendar year.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Recorded offences by category and year for Western Australian suburbs

    ACT Policing

    ACT Government

    ACT Policing publishes quarterly crime statistics by suburb, aggregated to yearly totals on SuburbScan.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Recorded offences by category and year for ACT suburbs

    National HealthDirect Health Facilities — Hospitals

    Geoscience Australia / HealthDirect

    National dataset of public and private hospitals sourced from the National Health Services Directory (NHSD), maintained by Geoscience Australia. Used to find the nearest hospitals to any property address. CC BY 4.0.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Nearest hospitals with name, service type, and distance

    National HealthDirect Health Facilities — GPs

    Geoscience Australia / HealthDirect

    GP and medical centre locations sourced from the National Health Services Directory (NHSD). Used to find the nearest GP clinics to any property address.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Nearest GP clinics with name, address, and distance

    National HealthDirect Health Facilities — Pharmacies

    Geoscience Australia / HealthDirect

    Pharmacy locations sourced from the National Health Services Directory (NHSD). Used to find the nearest pharmacies to any property address.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Nearest pharmacies with name, address, and distance

    Emergency Management Facilities — Police Stations

    Geoscience Australia

    Police station locations sourced from Geoscience Australia's Emergency Management Facilities dataset. Used to find the nearest police stations to any property address.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Nearest police stations with name, address, and distance

    CAPAD 2024 — Parks & Protected Areas

    Australian Government / DCCEEW

    The Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) is Australia's authoritative dataset of national parks, nature reserves, and other protected areas. SuburbScan indexes park centroids to find the nearest parks and reserves to any property address.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Nearest parks and reserves with name, type, IUCN category, and distance

    ACECQA National Register — Childcare

    Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority

    The ACECQA National Register provides details on every approved childcare service in Australia, including capacity, service type, and National Quality Standard (NQS) rating. Centres are geocoded against the GNAF address database for accurate proximity queries.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Nearest childcare centres with name, provider, capacity, and NQS quality rating

    Flood Planning Overlays

    State Planning Authorities

    Flood planning overlay polygons sourced from state planning schemes. SuburbScan checks whether a suburb or property address falls within a mapped flood zone using geo_shape intersection queries. Currently covers NSW (EPI Flood Planning), VIC (Vicmap overlays: FO, LSIO, RFO, SBO), QLD (Floodplain Assessment Overlay), and WA (FPM Floodplain Area).

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Flood zone intersection for suburbs and property addresses
    • Overlay type (floodway, land subject to inundation, flood planning, floodplain)

    DEA Coastlines v3.0.0

    Geoscience Australia / DEA

    Digital Earth Australia Coastlines is a national dataset with approximately 2.16 million points every 30 metres along Australia's coastline, measuring annual shoreline change rates (m/yr) from satellite imagery spanning 1988 to 2024.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Annual shoreline change rates (metres per year) for nearby monitoring points
    • Net shoreline movement over the observation period
    • Observation certainty and data quality indicators
    • Coastal erosion proximity analysis for property addresses and suburbs

    Australian Noise Exposure Forecast (ANEF)

    Airservices Australia / State Planning Authorities

    ANEF contour data maps aircraft noise exposure zones around major Australian airports. Sourced from Defence Airfields (data.gov.au), Brisbane Council, NSW Planning, VicPlan, QLD TMR, and WA SLIP. The contours represent cumulative noise levels and are used by planning authorities to guide residential development near airports.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • ANEF noise contour levels (20, 25, 30, 35, 40+) for major airports
    • Airport identification for each noise zone
    • Suburb-level noise exposure via boundary intersection
    • Property-level noise exposure via point containment

    Bushfire Historical Extents V3

    Australian Government / State Fire Agencies

    Historical bushfire boundary polygons sourced from state fire agencies across Australia, providing fire perimeters, ignition dates, fire type, ignition cause, and area burned (hectares).

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Bushfire history and proximity analysis for property addresses
    • Fire dates, type, cause, area burned, and perimeter length

    Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF)

    Geoscape Australia

    Australia's authoritative address database. G-NAF contains the geographic coordinates of every physical address in Australia and is used by SuburbScan for address lookups, geocoding, and suburb boundary data.

    Data used on SuburbScan:

    • Address geocoding and validation
    • Suburb and locality boundaries
    • Street and address matching

    Scoring Methodology

    SuburbScan calculates scores (0–100) across risk and livability dimensions to help buyers make informed decisions. Here's how each score is derived.

    Bushfire Risk

    Based on historical bushfire boundary data from national and state fire agencies. For each suburb, we calculate the overlap ratio — total burnt area divided by the suburb's size — to measure fire exposure relative to area. Suburbs are then percentile-ranked among all suburbs with any fire history, mapped to a 10–100 scale. Any suburb with recorded bushfire overlap gets a minimum score of 10. A score of 0 means no recorded bushfire history.

    0 — None 1–39 — Low 40–69 — Moderate 70–100 — High

    Crime Risk

    Based on the most recent year of officially recorded offences from state crime statistics agencies. Each offence category is weighted by severity — violent crimes (assault, robbery, homicide) carry higher weight than regulatory offences. The weighted total is divided by suburb population to produce a per-capita rate, then percentile-ranked within the same state for a fair comparison across different data sources. Any suburb with crime data gets a minimum score of 10. Crime data is available for VIC, NSW, SA, QLD, WA, and ACT. Tasmania and Northern Territory are not yet supported as suburb-level data is not published by their police agencies. A score of 0 means no crime data is available.

    0 — N/A 1–39 — Low 40–69 — Moderate 70–100 — High

    Transport Access Score

    Measures how well-connected a property is to public transport. The score combines three factors: mode diversity (40%) — how many different transport types are nearby; proximity (35%) — how close the nearest stop is; and stop density (25%) — total number of stops within 1 km. Rail-based modes (train, metro, tram) receive a bonus for their higher capacity and frequency. A score of 0 means no public transport stops were found within 1 km.

    0–19 — Very Limited 20–39 — Limited 40–59 — Moderate 60–79 — Good 80–100 — Excellent

    School Proximity

    Shows the nearest school to a property address, grouped by school type (primary, secondary, combined) and by sector (government, catholic, independent). Distance is calculated as straight-line distance from the property to the school. Walking time estimates are shown for schools within 1.2 km. Note: schools are based on distance, not official school zones — check with your state education department for enrolment boundaries.

    Aircraft Noise Risk

    Based on ANEF (Australian Noise Exposure Forecast) contour data from Airservices Australia and state planning authorities. For each suburb, we check whether its boundary intersects any mapped ANEF noise contour. The highest ANEF level found determines the noise exposure. Suburbs are then scored based on the severity of the highest contour — ANEF 20 is the lowest mapped level (noticeable noise), while ANEF 40+ is considered unacceptable for residential use. A score of 0 means no ANEF noise contours intersect the suburb. Property pages check whether the specific address point falls within a noise contour for precise assessment.

    0 — None 1–39 — Low 40–69 — Moderate 70–100 — High

    Coastal Erosion Risk

    Based on DEA Coastlines satellite data (1988–2024) from Geoscience Australia. For each suburb, we query the nearest high-certainty erosion monitoring point within 5 km and extract the worst (most negative) shoreline change rate. Only negative rates count as risk — positive rates (accretion) are ignored. Suburbs are then percentile-ranked among all suburbs with erosion data, mapped to a 10–100 scale. Any suburb with nearby erosion gets a minimum score of 10. A score of 0 means no monitored coastline within range. Property pages show individual monitoring points within 1 km with detailed rate and certainty data.

    0 — None 1–39 — Low 40–69 — Moderate 70–100 — High