Blue Hills flood map & planning overlays
A planning-constraint profile of Blue Hills
(Townsville City, QLD) - 31.13 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 19 September 2026.
Suburb-wide figures; the free map shows which overlays touch your lot.
Constraint readout
31.13 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Blue Hills's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top.
Nearby suburbs, nearest first
How common is mapped flood risk across Blue Hills properties?
Overlay percentages say how much land is constrained; these figures say how many properties are actually touched in a suburb-wide analysis of 3 Blue Hills properties. No individual property result is identified on this page.
Lot-level readout
Flood-risk rating across all 3 properties
From LayeredGeo's lot-risk engine: council flood overlays, historical flooding and terrain, resolved to each individual lot in Blue Hills.
Blue Hills at a glance
Schools in and near Blue Hills
Public school-location data shows availability across the suburb. These figures do not rate schools and do not assign a particular address to a catchment.
Inside the suburb boundary
0 schools providing primary years and 0 providing secondary years. A combined school may be counted in both teaching levels.
Nearest school availability
Primary: 7.72 km from the suburb boundary
Secondary: 12.60 km from the suburb boundary
Source: Queensland Government school geographic information. Catchment boundaries can divide a suburb and change over time; use the official catchment finder for a specific address.
How Blue Hills is zoned
Selling in Blue Hills? The lot-level zone is the zoning Part 3 of Queensland's Form 2 seller disclosure statement asks for - see our Form 2 planning data guide.
Across its 31.13 km², Blue Hills is highly constrained by planning overlays. Flood mapping covers the suburb and none of it falls within a mapped flood overlay, and 100% is flagged bushfire-prone. The dominant land-use zone is Rural. The terrain is gently undulating, and the median lot measures about 5,127,887 m² across 4 parcels.
Recent development applications in Blue Hills
Applications are counted across the whole gazetted suburb from the public Townsville City Council register. No application address or individual property is published here.
Submitted in the past 12 months
No geocoded application submissions were found for this suburb in the period.
Counts depend on applications that the council publishes and that can be assigned to a suburb. Categories can overlap when one application covers several types. Totals below five and their latest dates are suppressed. Register last synchronised 19 September 2026. Check the official council register.
Who lives in Blue Hills
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Blue Hills suburb boundary itself, not a wider region.
Socio-economic standing
ABS SEIFA 2021 ranks every Australian suburb. Decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth of the country, decile 10 the least.
Score 977, and decile 6 within Queensland. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Blue Hills's 1,066 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Northern Beaches, the wider ABS statistical area containing Blue Hills. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Blue Hills itself.
5,363 in 2001 to 7,196 in 2025, up 34%.
Source: ABS Census 2021 and SEIFA 2021 (Suburbs and Localities), Regional Population (SA2), CC BY 4.0. Small counts are randomly adjusted by the ABS.
Blue Hills data sources and coverage
“Not mapped” means we hold no source layer for this suburb - never an all-clear.
| Dataset | Coverage | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Flood mapping | Mapped | the relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data |
| Bushfire-prone mapping | Mapped | the relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data |
| Zoning | Mapped | the relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data |
| Heritage and environment | Mapped where published | the relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data |
| Aircraft noise contours (ANEF) | Not held | the relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data, Defence |
| Demographics | Available | Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021 Census and SEIFA) |
| School availability | Available | Queensland Government |
| Development applications | Available as suburb totals | Townsville City Council |
Profile last materially updated 19 September 2026. See the methodology and full source list. Source data changes over time and critical decisions should be checked with the responsible authority.
Check a specific Blue Hills address
See exactly which overlays touch a single property - the interactive map is free. Need it on paper? A full planning PDF is just $9.
Published flood models are held over parts of Blue Hills. The free check tells you whether one reaches an address; where it does, a Flood Model Report is +$9 with the planning report.
The Terrain Report shows the fall of the block - contours, cross sections and a 3D model of the lot (+$9 with the planning report).
Building or pricing a slab? The $119 geotechnical desktop report covers geology, soils, bores and an indicative AS 2870 site class for a Blue Hills lot.
See what's in the $9 report →Blue Hills planning - frequently asked
Is Blue Hills flood-prone?
Flood mapping covers Blue Hills and none of the suburb falls within a mapped flood overlay (the council-wide suburb average is 39%). Across the suburb, 0% of the 3 properties we analysed carry some level of mapped flood risk.
Is Blue Hills bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Blue Hills is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Townsville City average of 50%.
What is the zoning in Blue Hills?
The dominant planning zone in Blue Hills is Rural, though the suburb also includes Conservation.
Does Blue Hills have heritage-listed places?
No heritage-listed places are on record within Blue Hills.
Is Blue Hills hilly or flat?
Blue Hills is gently undulating: the median ground slope is about 5%, and 33% of measured points sit on grades of 15% or steeper. Ground level runs from roughly 66 m to 73 m AHD across the suburb.
What is the typical lot size in Blue Hills?
Across 4 surveyed parcels in Blue Hills, the median lot size is about 5,127,887 m². There are also 3 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
What is the population of Blue Hills?
At the 2021 Census Blue Hills had 1,066 usual residents, with a median age of 37 and an average household size of 3.0 people. The wider Northern Beaches statistical area, which contains Blue Hills, went from 5,363 people in 2001 to 7,196 in 2025, up 34%.
Is Blue Hills an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Blue Hills scores 977 and sits in decile 5 of 10 nationally and decile 6 within Queensland (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Blue Hills?
Median household income in Blue Hills was $2,157 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,510 for the typical suburb in Townsville City. Median rent was $390 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,733 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluewater Park | 6.3 km | 0% | 93% |
| Lynam | 6.5 km | <1% | 91% |
| Black River | 10.0 km | 4% | 45% |
| Bluewater | 10.1 km | 29% | 88% |
| Yabulu | 11.8 km | 36% | 46% |
| Hervey Range | 13.3 km | <1% | 92% |
| Rangewood | 14.6 km | 0% | 60% |
| Saunders Beach | 14.7 km | 100% | 54% |
| Toolakea | 14.7 km | 100% | 55% |
| Jensen | 15.2 km | 0% | 40% |