Swanwater flood map & planning overlays
Swanwater's 33 ha farms carry a 29.1% flood share.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Swanwater
(Northern Grampians, VIC) - 48.37 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 15 October 2026.
Constraint readout
48.37 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Swanwater's boundary, with the flood, bushfire and environmental overlays drawn on top.
Nearby suburbs, nearest first
Swanwater at a glance
How Swanwater is zoned
Selling in Swanwater? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 48.37 km², Swanwater is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 29% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 100% is flagged bushfire-prone. There is 1 heritage-listed site on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Farming Zone (FZ). The median lot measures about 328,314 m² across 117 parcels.
Who lives in Swanwater
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Swanwater 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 975, and decile 4 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of St Arnaud, the wider ABS statistical area containing Swanwater. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Swanwater itself.
4,075 in 2001 to 3,394 in 2025, down 17%.
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.
Swanwater 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 | Watched, not yet sampled here | adsb.lol, under the Open Database License |
| Demographics | Available | Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021 Census and SEIFA) |
Profile last materially updated 15 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 Swanwater 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 Swanwater lot.
Swanwater planning - frequently asked
Is Swanwater flood-prone?
About 29% of Swanwater falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 27%.
Is Swanwater bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Swanwater is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Northern Grampians average of 100%.
What is the zoning in Swanwater?
The dominant planning zone in Swanwater is Farming Zone (FZ), though the suburb also includes Public Use Zone (PUZ1) and Transport Zone (TRZ2).
Does Swanwater have heritage-listed places?
Swanwater has 1 heritage-listed place on record.
What is the typical lot size in Swanwater?
Across 117 surveyed parcels in Swanwater, the median lot size is about 328,314 m².
Is Swanwater an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Swanwater scores 975 and sits in decile 5 of 10 nationally and decile 4 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sutherland | 8.1 km | 21% | 100% |
| Swanwater West | 8.1 km | 10% | 100% |
| St Arnaud North | 8.2 km | 11% | 100% |
| Gre Gre North | 8.6 km | 21% | 100% |
| Cope Cope Buloke |
8.8 km | 35% | 100% |
| Traynors Lagoon | 11.0 km | 33% | 100% |
| Gooroc | 12.1 km | 25% | 100% |
| Moolerr | 13.6 km | 13% | 100% |
| Avon Plains | 14.7 km | 46% | 100% |
| St Arnaud | 15.2 km | 11% | 99% |