Harkness flood map & planning overlays

The schematic on this page is a Harkness flood map: the mapped flood overlays drawn over the suburb's terrain and street grid. Flood lines vary block to block, so for a specific property use the free interactive map - search any Harkness address and it shows the flood, zoning and bushfire mapping on the exact lot boundary.

Flood mapping covers Harkness and none of the suburb falls within a mapped flood overlay (the council-wide suburb average is 4%). Flood overlays vary block to block, so whether a particular lot is affected needs a property-level check.

Around 80% of Harkness is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Melton average of 68%. A bushfire-prone designation can trigger additional building requirements, so check the specific address.

The dominant planning zone in Harkness is Green Wedge Zone (GWZ), though the suburb also includes General Residential Zone (GRZ1) and Green Wedge A Zone (GWAZ). Zoning sets what you can build and do on a site, and can differ lot by lot.

Harkness has 2 heritage-listed places on record. Heritage listing affects what you can alter or demolish, so confirm whether a specific property is listed or near a heritage place.

Across 4,860 surveyed parcels in Harkness, the median lot size is about 497 m². There are also 2,135 registered easements mapped in the suburb - an easement can restrict where you can build, so always check the title and overlays for the specific lot.

There is no train station inside Harkness itself. The suburb is served by 33 bus stops.

At the 2021 Census Harkness had 12,463 usual residents, with a median age of 30 and an average household size of 3.1 people. The wider Melton West statistical area, which contains Harkness, went from 8,178 people in 2001 to 22,710 in 2025, up 178%. ABS publishes no annual population series for individual suburbs, so that trend describes the surrounding area rather than Harkness alone.

On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Harkness scores 935 and sits in decile 3 of 10 nationally and decile 2 within Victoria - decile 1 being the most disadvantaged tenth of Australian suburbs and decile 10 the least. The national average score is 1000. SEIFA summarises income, education, occupation and housing across the whole suburb, so it describes the area, not any particular household in it.

Median household income in Harkness was $1,752 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,841 for the typical suburb in Melton. Median rent was $350 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,700 a month. These are 2021 Census figures and have not been indexed to today.

A Harkness planning report pulls every overlay - zoning, flood, bushfire, heritage, environmental and noise - that touches a single lot, on live council and state data. The interactive map preview is free; the full PDF report is $9.