Cape Otway flood map & planning overlays
Cape Otway is conservation land with 6 heritage places on 5 ha 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 Cape Otway
(Colac Otway, VIC) - 82.24 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 24 October 2026.
Constraint readout
82.24 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Cape Otway'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 Cape Otway
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
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.
Cape Otway at a glance
How Cape Otway is zoned
Selling in Cape Otway? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 82.24 km², Cape Otway 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 6 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ). The median lot measures about 45,256 m² across 62 parcels.
Who lives in Cape Otway
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Cape Otway 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 1023, and decile 7 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Otway, the wider ABS statistical area containing Cape Otway. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Cape Otway 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.
Cape Otway 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 Cape Otway 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 2% of Cape Otway. 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 Cape Otway lot.
Cape Otway planning - frequently asked
Is Cape Otway flood-prone?
Flood mapping covers Cape Otway and less than 1% of the suburb falls within a mapped flood overlay (the council-wide suburb average is 12%).
Is Cape Otway bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Cape Otway is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Colac Otway average of 97%.
Is Cape Otway under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 2% of Cape Otway, and over about 10% 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 2,000 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 Cape Otway?
The dominant planning zone in Cape Otway is Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ), though the suburb also includes Rural Conservation Zone (RCZ) and Transport Zone (TRZ2).
Does Cape Otway have heritage-listed places?
Cape Otway has 6 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Cape Otway?
Across 62 surveyed parcels in Cape Otway, the median lot size is about 45,256 m². There are also 9 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Is Cape Otway an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Cape Otway scores 1023 and sits in decile 8 of 10 nationally and decile 7 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marengo | 6.9 km | 11% | 100% |
| Hordern Vale | 7.4 km | 19% | 100% |
| Apollo Bay | 7.4 km | 3% | 98% |
| Aire Valley | 9.7 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Glenaire | 9.9 km | 5% | 100% |
| Skenes Creek | 13.8 km | 3% | 100% |
| Petticoat Creek | 15.5 km | 3% | 100% |
| Skenes Creek North | 15.6 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Beech Forest | 16.1 km | <1% | 100% |
| Johanna | 16.2 km | 3% | 100% |