Welshmans Reef flood map & planning overlays
Welshmans Reef locals, median 57, look after 17 heritage places on 3 ha farms.
Free map preview, then PDF reports from $9 - about the price of an iced latte on a public holiday.
A planning-constraint profile of Welshmans Reef
(Mount Alexander, VIC) - 31.07 km², mapped from live council and
state overlay data. This suburb is highly constrained.
Profile updated 25 October 2026.
Constraint readout
31.07 km² - this suburb is highly constrained by planning overlays.
Elevation hillshade with street names, clipped to Welshmans Reef'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 Welshmans Reef
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.
Welshmans Reef at a glance
How Welshmans Reef is zoned
Selling in Welshmans Reef? The zoning and planning overlays on this page are the controls a Section 32 vendor statement discloses.
Across its 31.07 km², Welshmans Reef is highly constrained by planning overlays. About 12% of the suburb sits within a mapped flood overlay, and 100% is flagged bushfire-prone. There are 17 heritage-listed sites on record, and the dominant land-use zone is Farming Zone (FZ1). The median lot measures about 30,534 m² across 324 parcels.
Who lives in Welshmans Reef
Census 2021 figures published by the ABS for the Welshmans Reef 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 964, and decile 3 within Victoria. The national average is 1000.
Age profile
Share of Welshmans Reef's 210 residents in each ABS age band.
Population trend, 2001 to 2025
Estimated resident population of Castlemaine Surrounds, the wider ABS statistical area containing Welshmans Reef. There is no annual population series published at suburb level, so this describes the surrounding area rather than Welshmans Reef itself.
7,724 in 2001 to 9,675 in 2025, up 25%.
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.
Welshmans Reef 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 25 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 Welshmans Reef 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 →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 Welshmans Reef lot.
Welshmans Reef planning - frequently asked
Is Welshmans Reef flood-prone?
About 12% of Welshmans Reef falls within a mapped flood overlay, against the council-wide suburb average of 8%.
Is Welshmans Reef bushfire-prone?
Around 100% of Welshmans Reef is mapped as bushfire-prone, compared with a Mount Alexander average of 100%.
Is Welshmans Reef under a flight path?
Aircraft were observed over about 17% of Welshmans Reef in the period sampled, but only above 3,000 ft - the lowest measured was 4,000 ft. 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 Welshmans Reef?
The dominant planning zone in Welshmans Reef is Farming Zone (FZ1), though the suburb also includes Public Conservation and Resource Zone (PCRZ) and Public Use Zone (PUZ1).
Does Welshmans Reef have heritage-listed places?
Welshmans Reef has 17 heritage-listed places on record.
What is the typical lot size in Welshmans Reef?
Across 324 surveyed parcels in Welshmans Reef, the median lot size is about 30,534 m². There are also 23 registered easements mapped in the suburb.
Does Welshmans Reef have a train station?
There is no train station inside Welshmans Reef itself. The suburb is served by 2 bus stops.
What is the population of Welshmans Reef?
At the 2021 Census Welshmans Reef had 210 usual residents, with a median age of 57 and an average household size of 2.1 people. The wider Castlemaine Surrounds statistical area, which contains Welshmans Reef, went from 7,724 people in 2001 to 9,675 in 2025, up 25%.
Is Welshmans Reef an advantaged suburb?
On the ABS SEIFA 2021 index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD), Welshmans Reef scores 964 and sits in decile 4 of 10 nationally and decile 3 within Victoria (decile 1 is the most disadvantaged tenth, decile 10 the least).
What is the median household income in Welshmans Reef?
Median household income in Welshmans Reef was $1,259 a week at the 2021 Census, against $1,402 for the typical suburb in Mount Alexander. Median rent was $327 a week and the median mortgage repayment $1,432 a month.
Compare nearby suburbs
| Nearby suburb | Distance | Flood mapped | Bushfire-prone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newstead | 4.8 km | 16% | 100% |
| Joyces Creek Central Goldfields |
5.3 km | 24% | 100% |
| Gower | 5.9 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Green Gully | 7.0 km | 15% | 100% |
| Tarrengower | 7.2 km | <1% | 100% |
| Maldon | 7.7 km | Not mapped | 100% |
| Muckleford South | 8.5 km | 11% | 100% |
| Muckleford | 9.1 km | 8% | 100% |
| Strangways | 9.6 km | 23% | 100% |
| Strathlea | 11.3 km | 14% | 100% |