Cowes flood map & planning overlays
Cowes is Bass Coast's biggest, 6,593 people with 27 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 Cowes
(Bass Coast, VIC) - 20.71 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 24 October 2026.
Constraint readout
20.71 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Cowes'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 Cowes
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 0 a day
Night movements: observed, lowest 500 ft - night is sampled as often as day, but night traffic is light, so this is a floor and no rate can be put on it.
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.
Cowes at a glance
How Cowes is zoned
Selling in Cowes? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 20.71 km², Cowes is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 1% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 68% is flagged bushfire-prone. There are 27 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Farming Zone (FZ). The median lot measures about 620 m² across 7,805 parcels.
Who lives in Cowes
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Cowes 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 943, and decile 2 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Cowes's 6,593 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Phillip Island, the wider ABS statistical area containing Cowes. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Cowes itself.
7,361 in 2001 to 14,795 in 2025, up 101%.
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.
Cowes 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 Cowes 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 65% of Cowes. 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 Cowes lot.
Cowes planning - frequently asked
Is Cowes flood-prone?
About 1% of Cowes falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 15%.
Is Cowes bushfire-prone?
Around 68% of Cowes is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Bass Coast average of 93%.
Is Cowes under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 65% of Cowes, and over about 75% 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 2,000 ft. At the busiest point in the suburb about 1 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 Cowes?
The dominant planning zone in Cowes is Farming Zone (FZ), though the suburb also includes General Residential Zone (GRZ1) and Public Park and Recreation Zone (PPRZ).
Does Cowes have heritage-listed places?
Cowes has 27 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Cowes?
Across 7,805 surveyed parcels in Cowes, the median lot size is about 620 m². There are also 2,338 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Does Cowes have a train station?
There is no train station inside Cowes itself. The suburb is served by 22 bus stops.
What is the population of Cowes?
At the 2021 Census Cowes had 6,593 usual residents, with a median age of 55 and an average household size of 2.1 people. The wider Phillip Island statistical area, which contains Cowes, went from 7,361 people in 2001 to 14,795 in 2025, up 101%.
Is Cowes an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Cowes scores 943 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 Cowes?
Median household income in Cowes was $1,026 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,286 for the typical suburb in Bass Coast. Median rent was $331 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,550 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wimbledon Heights | 1.4 km | Not mapped | 39% |
| Rhyll | 3.4 km | 14% | 94% |
| Silverleaves | 3.4 km | 94% | 82% |
| Sunset Strip | 3.8 km | Not mapped | 47% |
| Smiths Beach | 4.1 km | 2% | 71% |
| Sunderland Bay | 4.9 km | <1% | 87% |
| Ventnor | 5.5 km | 1% | 96% |
| Surf Beach | 6.3 km | 11% | 81% |
| Summerlands | 9.2 km | 2% | 100% |
| Churchill Island | 9.4 km | 21% | 90% |