Bowser flood map & planning overlays
Bowser keeps 3 ha farm lots, 100% bushfire.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Bowser
(Wangaratta, VIC) - 5.28 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 29 September 2026.
Constraint readout
5.28 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Bowser's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top.
Nearby suburbs, nearest first
Aircraft noise and flight paths over Bowser
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.
Bowser at a glance
How Bowser is zoned
Selling in Bowser? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 5.28 km², Bowser is highly constrained by planning overlays. Flood mapping covers the suburb and none of it falls within a mapped flood overlay, and 100% is flagged bushfire-prone. The dominant land-use zone is Farming Zone (FZ). The median lot measures about 25,765 m² across 44 parcels.
Who lives in Bowser
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Bowser 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 977, and decile 4 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Wangaratta Surrounds, the wider ABS statistical area containing Bowser. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Bowser itself.
9,151 in 2001 to 10,070 in 2025, up 10%.
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.
Bowser 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 29 September 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 Bowser 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 →Building or pricing a slab? The $119 geotechnical desktop report covers geology, soils, bores and the indicative soil reactivity range to expect for a Bowser lot.
Bowser planning - frequently asked
Is Bowser flood-prone?
Flood mapping covers Bowser and none of the suburb falls within a mapped flood overlay (the council-wide suburb average is 17%).
Is Bowser bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Bowser is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Wangaratta average of 99%.
Is Bowser under a flight path?
No aircraft were observed over Bowser 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 Bowser?
The dominant planning zone in Bowser is Farming Zone (FZ), though the suburb also includes Rural Living Zone (RLZ2) and Transport Zone (TRZ2).
Does Bowser have heritage-listed places?
No heritage-listed places are on record within Bowser.
What is the typical lot size in Bowser?
Across 44 surveyed parcels in Bowser, the median lot size is about 25,765 m². There are also 17 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Is Bowser an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Bowser scores 977 and sits in decile 5 of 10 nationally and decile 4 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Wangaratta | 3.1 km | 56% | 100% |
| Dockers Plains | 3.4 km | 15% | 100% |
| East Wangaratta | 6.1 km | 34% | 100% |
| Waldara | 7.1 km | 29% | 88% |
| Wangaratta | 7.7 km | 41% | 73% |
| Londrigan | 7.8 km | 5% | 100% |
| Boralma | 9.1 km | 0% | 100% |
| Boorhaman | 9.6 km | 11% | 100% |
| Byawatha | 10.0 km | 3% | 100% |
| Oxley Flats | 10.2 km | 100% | 100% |