Little Desert flood map & planning overlays
Little Desert's 124 ha holdings rank 3rd of 16 in Hindmarsh.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Little Desert
(Hindmarsh, VIC) - 518.73 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 24 October 2026.
Constraint readout
518.73 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Little Desert's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top.
Nearby suburbs, nearest first
Aircraft noise and flight paths over Little Desert
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.
Little Desert at a glance
How Little Desert is zoned
Selling in Little Desert? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 518.73 km², Little Desert is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 2% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 100% is flagged bushfire-prone. There are 4 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ). The median lot measures about 1,236,052 m² across 105 parcels.
Who lives in Little Desert
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Little Desert suburb boundary itself, not a wider region.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Nhill Region, the wider ABS statistical area containing Little Desert. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Little Desert itself.
7,998 in 2001 to 6,698 in 2025, down 16%.
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.
Little Desert 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 Little Desert 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 →Building or pricing a slab? The $119 geotechnical desktop report covers geology, soils, bores and the indicative soil reactivity range to expect for a Little Desert lot.
Little Desert planning - frequently asked
Is Little Desert flood-prone?
About 2% of Little Desert falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 11%.
Is Little Desert bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Little Desert is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Hindmarsh average of 99%.
Is Little Desert under a flight path?
No aircraft were observed over Little Desert in the period sampled (4 Sep 2026 to 24 Oct 2026). Sampling is intermittent, so that is a floor rather than proof that none fly over. 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 Little Desert?
The dominant planning zone in Little Desert is Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ), though the suburb also includes Farming Zone (FZ) and Transport Zone (TRZ2).
Does Little Desert have heritage-listed places?
Little Desert has 4 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Little Desert?
Across 105 surveyed parcels in Little Desert, the median lot size is about 1,236,052 m².
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kiata | 14.7 km | 1% | 100% |
| Nurcoung West Wimmera |
17.3 km | 2% | 100% |
| Gerang Gerung | 17.5 km | <1% | 100% |
| Grass Flat Horsham |
20.2 km | 3% | 100% |
| Duchembegarra Horsham |
20.5 km | 14% | 95% |
| Mitre Horsham |
25.5 km | 20% | 96% |
| Nhill | 25.7 km | 3% | 100% |
| Lawloit West Wimmera |
26.4 km | 1% | 100% |
| Glenlee | 29.0 km | <1% | 100% |
| Dimboola | 29.1 km | 12% | 100% |