Portsea flood map & planning overlays

The schematic on this page is a Portsea flood map: the mapped flood overlays drawn over the suburb's terrain and street grid, covering about 1% of the suburb. Flood lines vary block to block, so for a specific property use the free interactive map - search any Portsea address and it shows the flood, zoning and bushfire mapping on the exact lot boundary.

About 1% of Portsea falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 3%. Flood overlays vary block to block, so whether a particular lot is affected needs a property-level check.

Around 100% of Portsea is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Mornington Peninsula average of 89%. A bushfire-prone designation can trigger additional building requirements, so check the specific address.

The dominant planning zone in Portsea is Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ), though the suburb also includes General Residential Zone (GRZ1) and Green Wedge Zone (GWZ3). Zoning sets what you can build and do on a site, and can differ lot by lot.

Portsea has 77 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 1,770 surveyed parcels in Portsea, the median lot size is about 1,278 m². There are also 717 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 Portsea itself. The suburb is served by 18 bus stops.

At the 2021 Census Portsea had 787 usual residents, with a median age of 68 and an average household size of 1.8 people. The wider Point Nepean statistical area, which contains Portsea, went from 15,820 people in 2001 to 20,574 in 2025, up 30%. ABS publishes no annual population series for individual suburbs, so that trend describes the surrounding area rather than Portsea alone.

On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Portsea scores 1136 and sits in decile 10 of 10 nationally and decile 10 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 Portsea was $2,470 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,906 for the typical suburb in Mornington Peninsula. Median rent was $577 a week and the median mortgage repayment $2,806 a month. These are 2021 Census figures and have not been indexed to today.

A Portsea 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.