One address in 69 is within 100 metres of an overhead high-voltage line. In Perth it is one in 16.
We measured 14.6 million addresses in six states and territories against Geoscience Australia's map of power lines. 212,111 are within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more. Perth has by far the most, because it runs 132 kV lines through its suburbs; much of Sydney's high voltage runs under its streets.
A high-voltage line is one of the few things about a property that you can see from the street and that never moves. We measured every address in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT against Geoscience Australia's national map of power lines. 212,111 addresses are within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more, about one in 69. Within 50 m there are 86,600.
| Addresses | Within 50 m | Within 100 m | Within 200 m | Share within 100 m | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Perth | 1,164,718 | 31,900 | 73,334 | 148,908 | 6.3% |
| Greater Sydney | 2,809,240 | 19,417 | 48,013 | 107,474 | 1.7% |
| Greater Brisbane | 1,413,075 | 8,597 | 21,735 | 51,826 | 1.5% |
| ACT | 246,121 | 980 | 2,889 | 8,672 | 1.2% |
| Regional New South Wales | 1,838,676 | 7,526 | 17,634 | 40,171 | 1.0% |
| Regional Queensland | 1,703,711 | 6,245 | 15,971 | 37,808 | 0.9% |
| Greater Melbourne | 2,890,843 | 7,491 | 21,257 | 51,135 | 0.7% |
| Greater Adelaide | 790,375 | 1,604 | 4,689 | 11,398 | 0.6% |
| Regional Western Australia | 371,661 | 578 | 1,678 | 4,233 | 0.5% |
| Regional Victoria | 1,077,154 | 1,621 | 3,790 | 8,192 | 0.4% |
| Regional South Australia | 341,205 | 641 | 1,121 | 2,076 | 0.3% |
| All six | 14,646,779 | 86,600 | 212,111 | 471,893 | 1.4% |
These are overhead lines of 110 kV and above: the big lines on steel towers or tall poles. Distance is measured from the address point to the nearest point of the line.
Perth runs 132 kV through its suburbs
One Perth address in 16 is within 100 m of an overhead 110 kV+ line, nearly four times the Sydney share. Western Power's 132 kV lines run between terminal stations through established suburbs, and six of the 14 suburbs with the highest shares are in Perth:
| Suburb | Addresses | Within 100 m | Main line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sumner, Brisbane | 980 | 39% | Algester to Rocklea, 110 kV |
| Woolooware, Sydney | 3,226 | 34% | Kurnell to Cronulla, 132 kV |
| Essendon West, Melbourne | 822 | 33% | Keilor to West Melbourne, 220 kV |
| Lathlain, Perth | 1,996 | 33% | Belmont to Rivervale, 132 kV |
| Osborne Park, Perth | 6,298 | 33% | Western Terminal to Northern Terminal, 132 kV |
| Westminster, Perth | 3,885 | 33% | Arkana to Osborne Park, 132 kV |
| Lynwood, Perth | 1,755 | 32% | Canning Vale to Riverton, 132 kV |
| Catherine Field, Sydney | 2,064 | 31% | Sydney West to Nepean, 132 kV |
| Tullimbar, Illawarra | 1,874 | 31% | Dapto to Mount Terry, 132 kV |
| Jolimont, Perth | 1,277 | 31% | West Terminal to Cook Street, 132 kV |
Suburbs with at least 500 addresses. By number rather than share, Hornsby in Sydney has the most addresses within 100 m (2,189), then Osborne Park (2,080) and Canning Vale (1,983) in Perth.
Melbourne's lines are smaller, not fewer
Few Melbourne addresses are near a line of 110 kV and above, but Victoria distributes power around its suburbs at 66 kV, on concrete poles along main roads. One Melbourne address in 13 is within 100 m of an overhead 66 kV line. Much of Sydney's and almost all of Brisbane's equivalent network runs at 33 kV, which the national map does not include, so those lines are simply not in the data. That is why the table above starts at 110 kV: below it, the comparison is between network designs, not between how close people live to a line.
In Sydney, much of it is under the street
The national map records high-voltage cable as well as overhead line, and in Sydney the cables are extensive. About 100,000 Sydney addresses are within 100 m of an underground 132 kV or 330 kV cable, twice as many as are near an overhead line. The most are in Kogarah, Pyrmont, Alexandria, Hurstville, Ultimo and Surry Hills. The map holds very few cables outside New South Wales, so this is a Sydney finding, not a comparison: other cities have buried lines too, but they are not on the national map.
What this means if you are buying
- Check the title for an easement. A transmission easement is usually registered on the title and can limit what you build on that part of the land. The contract of sale will show it.
- Distance is not the only question. A line 80 m away across a road reads very differently from one along the back fence. Look at the property, and at where the towers stand.
- A missing line is not proof there is none. The national map holds about 96% of the high-voltage line length that OpenStreetMap records, and nothing below 66 kV.
We make no claim about health. This is distance and voltage, which is what a buyer can check.
How we counted
- Lines are Geoscience Australia's Electricity Infrastructure dataset (2026 edition), which holds operational lines of 66 kV and above. We left out lines Geoscience Australia rates at its two lowest spatial-confidence levels, whose positions can be hundreds of metres out. On the rest, the same lines in OpenStreetMap sit a median 2.3 m away.
- "Overhead" means Geoscience Australia labels the line overhead AND OpenStreetMap shows an overhead line along at least half its length. Some lines labelled overhead run through city centres where OpenStreetMap has only cable, such as Haymarket to City North in Sydney; those are not counted as overhead.
- Addresses are G-NAF address points. Each unit in a block counts as an address, so a tower of apartments near a line counts many times. Tasmania and the Northern Territory are not included.
- "Greater" cities are the ABS Greater Capital City Statistical Areas. The ACT is the whole territory.
Every property page on SuburbScan lists the high-voltage lines within 500 m of the address, with their voltage and distance.