Areas / Townsville City / Town Common

Town Common flood map & planning overlays

Town Common sees 69 flights a day, joint 4th in Townsville City.

A planning-constraint profile of Town Common (Townsville City, QLD) - 37.58 km², mapped from live council and state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 7 November 2026.

Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Town Common's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top. Amber hatching is the published aircraft noise (ANEF) contour. 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 Town Common properties?

Counts of properties, not share of land, across 12 analysed Town Common properties; no individual property result is identified.

Aircraft noise and flight paths over Town Common

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

20%

20% 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

ANEF 40

Under AS 2021, land at ANEF 30 and above is generally unacceptable for new houses and most noise-sensitive uses. The contour is a forecast, not a measurement at any one house.

Contours held

  • Defence Airfields ANEF
  • Townsville City Council ANEF

Observed overflight - sampled 4 Sep to 7 Nov 2026

Under observed aircraft
100%
of the suburb, at or below 10,000 ft
Below 3,000 ft
100%
of the suburb's area
Lowest measured
500 ft
averaging 1,000 ft · ground movements recorded: on or beside an aerodrome
Busiest square
~70 a day
70 a day below 3,000 ft · ±5%
typical observed square 2 a day

Night movements: observed, lowest 500 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.

Town Common at a glance

Parcels 16 Median lot 44,989 m² Mapped easements 1 Bus stops 1 Schools in suburb 0 Landslide overlay 5%

Schools in and near Town Common

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

0 schools providing primary years and 0 providing secondary years. A combined school may be counted in both teaching levels.

Nearest school availability

Primary: 1.40 km from the suburb boundary

Secondary: 2.60 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 Town Common address in? Check an address with our free school zone checker.

How Town Common is zoned

Conservation 92%
Specialised Centre 5%
Sport and Recreation 2%
Open Space 0%
Community Facilities 0%
Low Density Residential 0%

Selling in Town Common? 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 37.58 km², Town Common is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 90% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 40% is flagged bushfire-prone. There is 1 heritage-listed site on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Conservation. The terrain is largely flat, and the median lot measures about 44,989 m² across 16 parcels.

Recent development applications in Town Common

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

0

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.

Who lives in Town Common

Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Town Common suburb boundary itself, not a wider region.

Population
3
usual residents, 2021

Population trend, 2001 to 2025

Estimated resident population of Belgian Gardens - Pallarenda, the wider ABS statistical area containing Town Common. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Town Common itself.

3,362 in 2001 to 3,190 in 2025, down 5%.

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.

Town Common data sources and coverage

“Not mapped” means we hold no source layer for this suburb - never an all-clear.

DatasetCoveragePublisher
Flood mappingMappedthe relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data
Bushfire-prone mappingMappedthe relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data
ZoningMappedthe relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data
Heritage and environmentMapped where publishedthe relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data
Aircraft noise contours (ANEF)Inside a held contourthe relevant council planning scheme and Queensland Government spatial data, Defence
Observed flight pathsObservedadsb.lol, under the Open Database License
DemographicsAvailableAustralian Bureau of Statistics (2021 Census and SEIFA)
School availabilityAvailableQueensland Government
Development applicationsAvailable as suburb totalsTownsville 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 Town Common 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 100% of Town Common. 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 Town Common. 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 Town Common lot.

Town Common planning - frequently asked

Is Town Common flood-prone?

About 90% of Town Common falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 57%. Across the suburb, 0% of the 12 properties we analysed carry some level of mapped flood risk. Published flood models are held over parts of Town Common; the free check on the Flood Model Report page says whether one reaches a given address.

Is Town Common bushfire-prone?

Around 40% of Town Common is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Townsville City average of 50%.

Is Town Common affected by aircraft noise?

About 20% of Town Common sits inside a published aircraft noise contour, and the highest contour present is ANEF 40 - under AS 2021, land above ANEF 25 is generally considered unacceptable for new houses, and 20-25 conditionally acceptable with noise attenuation. 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 Town Common under a flight path?

Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 100% of Town Common, in the period sampled (4 Sep 2026 to 7 Nov 2026). The lowest measured aircraft was at 500 ft, with an average of 1,000 ft. At the busiest point in the suburb about 70 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 Town Common?

The dominant planning zone in Town Common is Conservation, though the suburb also includes Specialised Centre and Sport and Recreation.

Does Town Common have heritage-listed places?

Town Common has 1 heritage-listed place on record.

Is Town Common hilly or flat?

Town Common is largely flat: the median ground slope is about 1%. Ground level runs from roughly 1 m to 4 m AHD across the suburb.

What is the typical lot size in Town Common?

Across 16 surveyed parcels in Town Common, the median lot size is about 44,989 m². There are also 1 registered easements mapped in the suburb.

Does Town Common have a train station?

There is no train station inside Town Common itself. The suburb is served by 1 bus stop.

Compare nearby suburbs

Nearby suburbDistanceFlood mappedBushfire-prone
Pallarenda 3.4 km 56% 67%
Shelly Beach 3.6 km 51% 87%
Mount St John 3.6 km 100% 5%
Bohle 4.2 km 100% 16%
Rowes Bay 5.0 km 100% 36%
Burdell 5.3 km 97% 36%
Garbutt 5.3 km 100% 5%
Belgian Gardens 6.2 km 69% 15%
Mount Louisa 6.9 km 63% 45%
Castle Hill 7.0 km <1% 86%

See all Townsville City suburb profiles →