Waugh Pocket flood map & planning overlays
Median lots of 5 ha on a 9.2% slope, with 49% flood-mapped. A pocket of rural room.
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 Waugh Pocket
(Cairns Regional, QLD) - 9.84 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 5 November 2026.
Constraint readout
9.84 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Waugh Pocket's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top.
Nearby suburbs, nearest first
How common is mapped flood risk across Waugh Pocket properties?
Counts of properties, not share of land, across 44 analysed Waugh Pocket properties; no individual property result is identified.
Lot-level readout
Flood-risk rating across all 44 properties
From LayeredGeo's lot-risk engine: council flood overlays, historical flooding and terrain, resolved to each individual lot in Waugh Pocket.
Aircraft noise and flight paths over Waugh Pocket
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 to
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.
Waugh Pocket at a glance
Schools in and near Waugh Pocket
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: 3.14 km from the suburb boundary
Secondary: 9.33 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 Waugh Pocket address in? Check an address with our free school zone checker.
How Waugh Pocket is zoned
Selling in Waugh Pocket? 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 9.84 km², Waugh Pocket is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 49% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 1% is flagged bushfire-prone. There is 1 heritage-listed site on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Rural. The terrain is gently undulating, and the median lot measures about 53,458 m² across 42 parcels.
Who lives in Waugh Pocket
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Waugh Pocket 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 998, and decile 7 within Queensland. The national average is 1000.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Babinda, the wider ABS statistical area containing Waugh Pocket. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Waugh Pocket itself.
4,292 in 2001 to 4,765 in 2025, up 11%.
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.
Waugh Pocket 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 |
Profile last materially updated 5 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 Waugh Pocket 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 →Published flood models are held over parts of Waugh Pocket. 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 Waugh Pocket lot.
Waugh Pocket planning - frequently asked
Is Waugh Pocket flood-prone?
About 49% of Waugh Pocket falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 55%. Across the suburb, 57% of the 44 properties we analysed carry some level of mapped flood risk, including 25 rated high risk or historically affected. Published flood models are held over parts of Waugh Pocket; the free check on the Flood Model Report page says whether one reaches a given address.
Is Waugh Pocket bushfire-prone?
Around 1% of Waugh Pocket is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Cairns Regional average of 23%.
Is Waugh Pocket under a flight path?
No aircraft were observed over Waugh Pocket in the period sampled (recent weeks to now). Sampling is intermittent, so that is a floor rather than proof that none fly over. 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 Waugh Pocket?
The dominant planning zone in Waugh Pocket is Rural, though the suburb also includes Conservation and Open Space.
Does Waugh Pocket have heritage-listed places?
Waugh Pocket has 1 heritage-listed place on record.
Is Waugh Pocket hilly or flat?
Waugh Pocket is gently undulating: the median ground slope is about 9%, and 34% of measured points sit on grades of 15% or steeper. Ground level runs from roughly 12 m to 50 m AHD across the suburb.
What is the typical lot size in Waugh Pocket?
Across 42 surveyed parcels in Waugh Pocket, the median lot size is about 53,458 m². There are also 15 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Is Waugh Pocket an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Waugh Pocket scores 998 and sits in decile 6 of 10 nationally and decile 7 within Queensland (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vasa Views Cassowary Coast Regional |
2.5 km | 43% | 0% |
| Eubenangee Cassowary Coast Regional |
2.7 km | 59% | 12% |
| Ngatjan | 4.2 km | 28% | <1% |
| Fitzgerald Creek Cassowary Coast Regional |
5.5 km | 62% | <1% |
| Garradunga Cassowary Coast Regional |
6.2 km | 51% | <1% |
| Daradgee Cassowary Coast Regional |
6.3 km | 92% | 0% |
| Eubenangee | 7.0 km | 58% | 28% |
| Bartle Frere | 7.1 km | 71% | <1% |
| Woopen Creek | 7.2 km | 54% | 2% |
| Upper Daradgee Cassowary Coast Regional |
7.8 km | 63% | 3% |