Buchan flood map & planning overlays
Buchan counts 7 heritage places, joint 9th across East Gippsland.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Buchan
(East Gippsland, VIC) - 429.57 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 24 October 2026.
Constraint readout
429.57 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Buchan's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top.
Nearby suburbs, nearest first
Aircraft noise and flight paths over Buchan
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.
Buchan at a glance
How Buchan is zoned
Selling in Buchan? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 429.57 km², Buchan 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. There are 7 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ). The median lot measures about 57,969 m² across 586 parcels.
Who lives in Buchan
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Buchan 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 935, and decile 2 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Buchan's 201 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Orbost, the wider ABS statistical area containing Buchan. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Buchan itself.
7,047 in 2001 to 6,727 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.
Buchan 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 Buchan 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 Buchan lot.
Buchan planning - frequently asked
Is Buchan flood-prone?
Flood mapping covers Buchan and less than 1% of the suburb falls within a mapped flood overlay (the council-wide suburb average is 18%).
Is Buchan bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Buchan is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a East Gippsland average of 94%.
Is Buchan under a flight path?
No aircraft were observed over Buchan 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 Buchan?
The dominant planning zone in Buchan is Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ), though the suburb also includes Farming Zone (FZ1) and Transport Zone (TRZ2).
Does Buchan have heritage-listed places?
Buchan has 7 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Buchan?
Across 586 surveyed parcels in Buchan, the median lot size is about 57,969 m². There are also 104 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Does Buchan have a train station?
There is no train station inside Buchan itself. The suburb is served by 1 bus stop.
What is the population of Buchan?
At the 2021 Census Buchan had 201 usual residents, with a median age of 54 and an average household size of 2.1 people. The wider Orbost statistical area, which contains Buchan, went from 7,047 people in 2001 to 6,727 in 2025, down 5%.
Is Buchan an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Buchan scores 935 and sits in decile 3 of 10 nationally and decile 2 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Buchan?
Median household income in Buchan was $1,083 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,209 for the typical suburb in East Gippsland. Median rent was $158 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,000 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Murrindal | 9.3 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Buchan South | 13.9 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Reedy Flat | 15.6 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Timbarra | 16.4 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| W Tree | 20.3 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Wulgulmerang West | 20.9 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Butchers Ridge | 22.4 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Tambo Crossing | 25.0 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Nunniong | 25.2 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Bete Bolong North | 25.5 km | Not mapped | 100% |