Fern Hill flood map & planning overlays
Fern Hill tops Hepburn for flood mapping, 19.8%, on 8 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 Fern Hill
(Hepburn, VIC) - 17.55 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 24 October 2026.
Constraint readout
17.55 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Fern Hill'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 Fern Hill
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.
Fern Hill at a glance
How Fern Hill is zoned
Selling in Fern Hill? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 17.55 km², Fern Hill is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 20% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 100% is flagged bushfire-prone. There are 10 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Rural Conservation Zone (RCZ1). The median lot measures about 83,911 m² across 101 parcels.
Who lives in Fern Hill
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Fern Hill 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 1091, and decile 10 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Fern Hill's 125 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Daylesford, the wider ABS statistical area containing Fern Hill. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Fern Hill itself.
8,201 in 2001 to 10,342 in 2025, up 26%.
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.
Fern Hill 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 Fern Hill 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 12% of Fern Hill. 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 Fern Hill lot.
Fern Hill planning - frequently asked
Is Fern Hill flood-prone?
About 20% of Fern Hill falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 7%.
Is Fern Hill bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Fern Hill is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Hepburn average of 100%.
Is Fern Hill under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed below 3,000 ft over about 12% of Fern Hill, and over about 58% 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 4,500 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 Fern Hill?
The dominant planning zone in Fern Hill is Rural Conservation Zone (RCZ1), though the suburb also includes Farming Zone (FZ2) and Transport Zone (TRZ1).
Does Fern Hill have heritage-listed places?
Fern Hill has 10 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Fern Hill?
Across 101 surveyed parcels in Fern Hill, the median lot size is about 83,911 m². There are also 59 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
What is the population of Fern Hill?
At the 2021 Census Fern Hill had 125 usual residents, with a median age of 49 and an average household size of 2.5 people. The wider Daylesford statistical area, which contains Fern Hill, went from 8,201 people in 2001 to 10,342 in 2025, up 26%.
Is Fern Hill an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Fern Hill scores 1091 and sits in decile 10 of 10 nationally and decile 10 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Fern Hill?
Median household income in Fern Hill was $2,062 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,400 for the typical suburb in Hepburn. Median rent was $231 a week and the median mortgage repayment $2,252 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tylden South | 3.9 km | 18% | 100% |
| Trentham East Macedon Ranges |
4.9 km | 4% | 100% |
| Tylden Macedon Ranges |
5.4 km | 21% | 98% |
| Ashbourne Macedon Ranges |
6.1 km | 8% | 100% |
| North Blackwood | 6.8 km | 3% | 100% |
| Trentham | 7.5 km | 15% | 100% |
| Kyneton South Macedon Ranges |
9.1 km | 17% | 100% |
| Spring Hill Macedon Ranges |
10.0 km | 14% | 99% |
| Woodend Macedon Ranges |
10.4 km | 14% | 98% |
| Little Hampton | 10.6 km | 4% | 100% |