Apollo Bay flood map & planning overlays
Apollo Bay: 1,790 residents, 24 heritage places, Colac Otway's tightest lots.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Apollo Bay
(Colac Otway, VIC) - 87.01 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 24 October 2026.
Constraint readout
87.01 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Apollo 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
Aircraft noise and flight paths over Apollo Bay
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.
Contours held
- Victorian Airport Environs Overlay
Observed overflight - sampled 4 Sep to 24 Oct 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.
Apollo Bay at a glance
How Apollo Bay is zoned
Selling in Apollo Bay? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 87.01 km², Apollo Bay is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 3% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 98% is flagged bushfire-prone. There are 24 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Rural Conservation Zone (RCZ). The median lot measures about 647 m² across 2,770 parcels.
Who lives in Apollo Bay
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Apollo 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 959, and decile 3 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Apollo Bay's 1,790 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Otway, the wider ABS statistical area containing Apollo Bay. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Apollo Bay itself.
3,452 in 2001 to 3,974 in 2025, up 15%.
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.
Apollo 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 | Vicmap Planning and Victorian Government spatial services |
| Bushfire-prone mapping | Mapped | Vicmap Planning and Victorian Government spatial services |
| Zoning | Mapped | Vicmap Planning and Victorian Government spatial services |
| Heritage and environment | Mapped where published | Vicmap Planning and Victorian Government spatial services |
| Aircraft noise contours (ANEF) | Inside a held contour | Vicmap Planning and Victorian Government spatial services, Defence |
| Observed flight paths | Observed | adsb.lol, under the Open Database License |
| Demographics | Available | Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021 Census and SEIFA) |
Profile last materially updated 24 October 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 Apollo 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 4% of Apollo Bay. The report's Aircraft Overflight page narrows that to the address itself: how many aircraft a day, how low, and at what heights.
Building or pricing a slab? The $119 geotechnical desktop report covers geology, soils, bores and the indicative soil reactivity range to expect for a Apollo Bay lot.
Apollo Bay planning - frequently asked
Is Apollo Bay flood-prone?
About 3% of Apollo Bay falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 12%.
Is Apollo Bay bushfire-prone?
Around 98% of Apollo Bay is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Colac Otway average of 97%.
Is Apollo Bay affected by aircraft noise?
About <1% of Apollo Bay sits inside a published aircraft noise contour. 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 Apollo Bay under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 4% of Apollo Bay, and over about 16% at any altitude up to 10,000 ft, in the period sampled (4 Sep 2026 to 24 Oct 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 Apollo Bay?
The dominant planning zone in Apollo Bay is Rural Conservation Zone (RCZ), though the suburb also includes Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ) and Rural Activity Zone (RAZ).
Does Apollo Bay have heritage-listed places?
Apollo Bay has 24 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Apollo Bay?
Across 2,770 surveyed parcels in Apollo Bay, the median lot size is about 647 m². There are also 1,632 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Does Apollo Bay have a train station?
There is no train station inside Apollo Bay itself. The suburb is served by 5 bus stops.
What is the population of Apollo Bay?
At the 2021 Census Apollo Bay had 1,790 usual residents, with a median age of 52 and an average household size of 2.0 people. The wider Otway statistical area, which contains Apollo Bay, went from 3,452 people in 2001 to 3,974 in 2025, up 15%.
Is Apollo Bay an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Apollo Bay scores 959 and sits in decile 4 of 10 nationally and decile 3 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Apollo Bay?
Median household income in Apollo Bay was $1,144 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,443 for the typical suburb in Colac Otway. Median rent was $300 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,700 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marengo | 5.0 km | 11% | 100% |
| Skenes Creek | 6.5 km | 3% | 100% |
| Cape Otway | 7.4 km | <1% | 100% |
| Skenes Creek North | 8.2 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Aire Valley | 8.3 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Petticoat Creek | 8.4 km | 3% | 100% |
| Tanybryn | 11.1 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Beech Forest | 11.7 km | <1% | 100% |
| Sugarloaf | 14.4 km | 1% | 100% |
| Hordern Vale | 14.5 km | 19% | 100% |