Barwon Heads flood map & planning overlays
Barwon Heads rents for $450 and keeps 54 heritage places.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Barwon Heads
(Greater Geelong, VIC) - 6.83 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 24 October 2026.
Constraint readout
6.83 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Barwon Heads'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 Barwon Heads
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 24 Oct 2026
typical observed square 1 a day
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.
Barwon Heads at a glance
How Barwon Heads is zoned
Selling in Barwon Heads? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 6.83 km², Barwon Heads is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 45% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 52% is flagged bushfire-prone. There are 54 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Neighbourhood Residential Zone (NRZ6). The median lot measures about 632 m² across 2,813 parcels.
Who lives in Barwon Heads
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Barwon Heads 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 1100, and decile 10 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Barwon Heads's 4,353 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Barwon Heads - Armstrong Creek, the wider ABS statistical area containing Barwon Heads. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Barwon Heads itself.
3,388 in 2001 to 15,749 in 2025, up 365%.
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.
Barwon Heads 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) | Not held | 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 Barwon Heads 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 85% of Barwon Heads. 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 Barwon Heads lot.
Barwon Heads planning - frequently asked
Is Barwon Heads flood-prone?
About 45% of Barwon Heads falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 18%.
Is Barwon Heads bushfire-prone?
Around 52% of Barwon Heads is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Greater Geelong average of 50%.
Is Barwon Heads under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 85% of Barwon Heads, and over about 100% 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 3,000 ft. At the busiest point in the suburb about 2 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 Barwon Heads?
The dominant planning zone in Barwon Heads is Neighbourhood Residential Zone (NRZ6), though the suburb also includes Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ) and Farming Zone (FZ).
Does Barwon Heads have heritage-listed places?
Barwon Heads has 54 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Barwon Heads?
Across 2,813 surveyed parcels in Barwon Heads, the median lot size is about 632 m². There are also 1,015 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Does Barwon Heads have a train station?
There is no train station inside Barwon Heads itself. The suburb is served by 25 bus stops.
What is the population of Barwon Heads?
At the 2021 Census Barwon Heads had 4,353 usual residents, with a median age of 46 and an average household size of 2.5 people. The wider Barwon Heads - Armstrong Creek statistical area, which contains Barwon Heads, went from 3,388 people in 2001 to 15,749 in 2025, up 365%.
Is Barwon Heads an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Barwon Heads scores 1100 and sits in decile 10 of 10 nationally and decile 10 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Barwon Heads?
Median household income in Barwon Heads was $2,226 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,670 for the typical suburb in Greater Geelong. Median rent was $450 a week and the median mortgage repayment $2,184 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean Grove | 4.0 km | 19% | 49% |
| Wallington | 5.3 km | 22% | 86% |
| Connewarre | 5.3 km | 52% | 64% |
| Marcus Hill | 8.0 km | 9% | 100% |
| Leopold | 8.7 km | 8% | 77% |
| Breamlea | 9.1 km | 71% | 100% |
| Point Lonsdale | 9.6 km | 44% | 71% |
| Curlewis | 11.0 km | <1% | 93% |
| Armstrong Creek | 11.7 km | 34% | 48% |
| Mannerim | 12.0 km | 4% | 100% |