Elphinstone flood map & planning overlays
Elphinstone counts 36 heritage places, its median local 50.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Elphinstone
(Mount Alexander, VIC) - 84.04 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 25 October 2026.
Constraint readout
84.04 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Elphinstone'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 Elphinstone
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: 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.
Elphinstone at a glance
How Elphinstone is zoned
Selling in Elphinstone? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 84.04 km², Elphinstone 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 36 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Farming Zone (FZ1). The median lot measures about 16,530 m² across 867 parcels.
Who lives in Elphinstone
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Elphinstone 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 993, and decile 5 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Elphinstone's 633 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Castlemaine Surrounds, the wider ABS statistical area containing Elphinstone. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Elphinstone itself.
7,724 in 2001 to 9,675 in 2025, up 25%.
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.
Elphinstone 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 25 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 Elphinstone 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 →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 Elphinstone lot.
Elphinstone planning - frequently asked
Is Elphinstone flood-prone?
Flood mapping covers Elphinstone and less than 1% of the suburb falls within a mapped flood overlay (the council-wide suburb average is 8%).
Is Elphinstone bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Elphinstone is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Mount Alexander average of 100%.
Is Elphinstone under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed over about 54% of Elphinstone in the period sampled, but only above 3,000 ft - the lowest measured was 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 Elphinstone?
The dominant planning zone in Elphinstone is Farming Zone (FZ1), though the suburb also includes Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ) and Public Use Zone (PUZ1).
Does Elphinstone have heritage-listed places?
Elphinstone has 36 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Elphinstone?
Across 867 surveyed parcels in Elphinstone, the median lot size is about 16,530 m². There are also 158 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Does Elphinstone have a train station?
There is no train station inside Elphinstone itself. The suburb is served by 2 bus stops.
What is the population of Elphinstone?
At the 2021 Census Elphinstone had 633 usual residents, with a median age of 50 and an average household size of 2.3 people. The wider Castlemaine Surrounds statistical area, which contains Elphinstone, went from 7,724 people in 2001 to 9,675 in 2025, up 25%.
Is Elphinstone an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Elphinstone scores 993 and sits in decile 6 of 10 nationally and decile 5 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Elphinstone?
Median household income in Elphinstone was $1,447 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,402 for the typical suburb in Mount Alexander. Median rent was $203 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,594 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faraday | 5.3 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Chewton Bushlands | 5.8 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Metcalfe | 7.2 km | 5% | 100% |
| Taradale | 7.4 km | 7% | 100% |
| Golden Point (Castlemaine) | 7.6 km | 1% | 100% |
| Chewton | 8.1 km | 3% | 100% |
| Sutton Grange | 9.9 km | 2% | 100% |
| Moonlight Flat (Castlemaine) | 9.9 km | 12% | 100% |
| Fryerstown | 11.2 km | 0% | 100% |
| Metcalfe East | 11.7 km | 3% | 100% |