Shelly Beach flood map & planning overlays
The Townsville Shelly Beach is 100% environmental area, joint top in Queensland.
Most lots here are flood-mapped. The free check shows how much of one lot the overlay covers.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Shelly Beach
(Townsville City, QLD) - 1.45 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 7 November 2026.
Constraint readout
1.45 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Shelly Beach'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 Shelly Beach properties?
Counts of properties, not share of land, across 3 analysed Shelly Beach properties; no individual property result is identified.
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 Shelly Beach.
Aircraft noise and flight paths over Shelly Beach
The ANEF contour is a published planning forecast and observed overflight is what a sampled tracking feed recorded - neither describes any individual property.
Inside an aircraft noise contour
<1% of the suburb's land sits inside a published ANEF or airport-environs contour. Contours vary street by street, so whether a particular lot is inside one needs a property-level check.
Highest contour present
Under AS 2021, land between ANEF 20 and 25 is conditionally acceptable for houses, usually with noise attenuation built in. The contour is a forecast, not a measurement at any one house.
Contours held
- Townsville City Council ANEF
Observed overflight - sampled 4 Sep to 7 Nov 2026
typical observed square 1 a day
Night movements: observed, lowest 1,000 ft - night is sampled as often as day, but night traffic is light, so this is a floor and no rate can be put on it.
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.
Shelly Beach at a glance
Schools in and near Shelly Beach
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
0 schools providing primary years and 0 providing secondary years. A combined school may be counted in both teaching levels.
Nearest school availability
Primary: 6.95 km from the suburb boundary
Secondary: 7.87 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 Shelly Beach address in? Check an address with our free school zone checker.
How Shelly Beach is zoned
Selling in Shelly Beach? 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 1.45 km², Shelly Beach is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 51% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 87% is flagged bushfire-prone. There are 2 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Conservation. The terrain is largely flat, and the median lot measures about 4,050 m² across 5 parcels.
Recent development applications in Shelly Beach
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 8 November 2026. Check the official council register.
Shelly Beach 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) | Inside a held contour | the relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data, Defence |
| Observed flight paths | Observed | adsb.lol, under the Open Database License |
| Demographics | Not 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 Shelly Beach 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 90% of Shelly Beach. 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 Shelly Beach. 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 Shelly Beach lot.
Shelly Beach planning - frequently asked
Is Shelly Beach flood-prone?
About 51% of Shelly Beach falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 57%. Across the suburb, 0% of the 3 properties we analysed carry some level of mapped flood risk. Published flood models are held over parts of Shelly Beach; the free check on the Flood Model Report page says whether one reaches a given address.
Is Shelly Beach bushfire-prone?
Around 87% of Shelly Beach is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Townsville City average of 50%.
Is Shelly Beach affected by aircraft noise?
About <1% of Shelly Beach sits inside a published aircraft noise contour, and the highest contour present is ANEF 20 - under AS 2021, land between ANEF 20 and 25 is conditionally acceptable for houses, usually with noise attenuation in the build. ANEF contours are forecasts published per airport and used to control noise-sensitive development; they are not a measurement at any one house, and a property can sit under a flight path and outside every contour.
Is Shelly Beach under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 90% of Shelly Beach, and over about 100% 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 2,000 ft. At the busiest point in the suburb about 4 aircraft a day were recorded passing over one 500 m square. 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 Shelly Beach?
The dominant planning zone in Shelly Beach is Conservation.
Does Shelly Beach have heritage-listed places?
Shelly Beach has 2 heritage-listed places on record.
Is Shelly Beach hilly or flat?
Shelly Beach is largely flat: the median ground slope is about 3%. Ground level runs from roughly 4 m to 5 m AHD across the suburb.
What is the typical lot size in Shelly Beach?
Across 5 surveyed parcels in Shelly Beach, the median lot size is about 4,050 m².
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pallarenda | 2.2 km | 56% | 67% |
| Town Common | 3.6 km | 90% | 40% |
| Rowes Bay | 6.8 km | 100% | 36% |
| Mount St John | 7.1 km | 100% | 5% |
| Bohle | 7.7 km | 100% | 16% |
| Picnic Bay | 7.7 km | 18% | 93% |
| Belgian Gardens | 7.9 km | 69% | 15% |
| Burdell | 8.0 km | 97% | 36% |
| Garbutt | 8.1 km | 100% | 5% |
| Bushland Beach | 8.3 km | 89% | 37% |