Nelly Bay flood map & planning overlays
Nelly Bay has a ferry terminal and 26 bus stops, and is 57.6% landslide-mapped.
Things you won't regret: spending $9 to know the lot before you commit.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Nelly Bay
(Townsville City, QLD) - 4.66 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 7 November 2026.
Constraint readout
4.66 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Nelly Bay's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top. Magenta is where aircraft were observed in the sampled period, brightest below 3,000 ft.
Nearby suburbs, nearest first
How common is mapped flood risk across Nelly Bay properties?
Counts of properties, not share of land, across 1,323 analysed Nelly Bay properties; no individual property result is identified.
Lot-level readout
Flood-risk rating across all 1,323 properties
From LayeredGeo's lot-risk engine: council flood overlays, historical flooding and terrain, resolved to each individual lot in Nelly Bay.
Aircraft noise and flight paths over Nelly Bay
The ANEF contour is a published planning forecast and observed overflight is what a sampled tracking feed recorded - neither describes any individual property.
Observed overflight - sampled 4 Sep to 7 Nov 2026
Night movements: not established - night is sampled as often as day, but too few night flights have been seen here to conclude either way.
How this is measured
Traffic is sampled rather than watched continuously, so every figure is a floor: aircraft not captured between samples are not represented. Rates are per 500 m square - the busiest square in the suburb, not a count of flights over the suburb - and a square is only rated where enough traffic was seen to measure it. Altitudes are above mean sea level. Flight paths change with runway use, weather, season and airspace design. This is a record of observed traffic; it is not a noise contour and not a planning control.
Nelly Bay at a glance
Schools in and near Nelly Bay
Public school-location data shows availability across the suburb; it does not rate schools or assign any individual address to a catchment.
Inside the suburb boundary
1 school providing primary years and 0 providing secondary years. A combined school may be counted in both teaching levels.
Nearest school availability
Primary: inside the suburb
Secondary: 9.06 km from the suburb boundary
Source: Queensland Government school geographic information. Catchment boundaries can divide a suburb and change over time.
Which school zone is a Nelly Bay address in? Check an address with our free school zone checker.
How Nelly Bay is zoned
Selling in Nelly Bay? 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 4.66 km², Nelly Bay is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 29% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 82% is flagged bushfire-prone. There is 1 heritage-listed site on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Conservation. The terrain is gently undulating, and the median lot measures about 952 m² across 1,347 parcels.
Recent development applications in Nelly Bay
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
Latest included submission: 7 September 2026.
Previous 12 months: 31 (52% lower in the latest 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 8 November 2026. Check the official council register.
Who lives in Nelly Bay
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Nelly Bay 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 962, and decile 5 within Queensland. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Nelly Bay's 1,213 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Magnetic Island, the wider ABS statistical area containing Nelly Bay. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Nelly Bay itself.
2,090 in 2001 to 2,658 in 2025, up 27%.
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.
Nelly Bay 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 |
| Observed flight paths | Observed | adsb.lol, under the Open Database License |
| 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 7 November 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 Nelly Bay 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.
See what's in the $9 report →Aircraft have been seen below 3,000 ft over about 1% of Nelly Bay. The report's Aircraft Overflight page narrows that to the address itself: how many aircraft a day, how low, and at what heights.
Published flood models are held over parts of Nelly Bay. 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 to spin round in your browser (+$9 with the planning report).
Moving here? The Liveability section adds walking times from the address to schools, parks, shops and transport, and the school zones it sits in (+$9 with the planning report).
Building or pricing a slab? The $119 geotechnical desktop report covers geology, soils, bores and the indicative soil reactivity range to expect for a Nelly Bay lot.
Nelly Bay planning - frequently asked
Is Nelly Bay flood-prone?
About 29% of Nelly Bay falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 57%. Across the suburb, 0% of the 1,323 properties we analysed carry some level of mapped flood risk. Published flood models are held over parts of Nelly Bay; the free check on the Flood Model Report page says whether one reaches a given address.
Is Nelly Bay bushfire-prone?
Around 82% of Nelly Bay is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Townsville City average of 50%.
Is Nelly Bay under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 1% of Nelly Bay, and over about 5% at any altitude up to 10,000 ft, in the period sampled (4 Sep 2026 to 7 Nov 2026). The lowest measured aircraft was at 500 ft, with an average of 4,000 ft. Traffic is sampled rather than watched continuously and flight paths change with runway use, weather and season; the ANEF contour is the planning instrument.
What is the zoning in Nelly Bay?
The dominant planning zone in Nelly Bay is Conservation, though the suburb also includes Low Density Residential and Medium Density Residential.
Does Nelly Bay have heritage-listed places?
Nelly Bay has 1 heritage-listed place on record.
Is Nelly Bay hilly or flat?
Nelly Bay is gently undulating: the median ground slope is about 6%, and 14% of measured points sit on grades of 15% or steeper. Ground level runs from roughly 2 m to 22 m AHD across the suburb.
What is the typical lot size in Nelly Bay?
Across 1,347 surveyed parcels in Nelly Bay, the median lot size is about 952 m². There are also 90 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Does Nelly Bay have a train station?
There is no train station inside Nelly Bay itself. The suburb is served by 26 bus stops and 1 ferry terminal.
What is the population of Nelly Bay?
At the 2021 Census Nelly Bay had 1,213 usual residents, with a median age of 56 and an average household size of 2.0 people. The wider Magnetic Island statistical area, which contains Nelly Bay, went from 2,090 people in 2001 to 2,658 in 2025, up 27%.
Is Nelly Bay an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Nelly Bay scores 962 and sits in decile 4 of 10 nationally and decile 5 within Queensland (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Nelly Bay?
Median household income in Nelly Bay was $1,003 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,510 for the typical suburb in Townsville City. Median rent was $300 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,470 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arcadia | 1.9 km | 8% | 90% |
| Picnic Bay | 2.5 km | 18% | 93% |
| Horseshoe Bay | 3.6 km | 40% | 86% |
| West Point | 3.7 km | 9% | 93% |
| Florence Bay | 5.1 km | 10% | 91% |
| Pallarenda | 9.2 km | 56% | 67% |
| Shelly Beach | 10.1 km | 51% | 87% |
| North Ward | 11.0 km | 71% | 11% |
| Rowes Bay | 11.6 km | 100% | 36% |
| South Townsville | 11.7 km | 99% | 0% |