Locations & planning
Transport, schools, planning, environmental risk and market data behind the Researching Locations guides and suburb directory. Every figure is drawn from this graph of claims, each traced to a specific, actually-fetched government or regulator source. This page is generated directly from that graph, not maintained separately from it. See the full knowledge base for other subjects.
How this works
Delora fetches primary sources — government departments, regulators and authoritative registers — archives them with a content hash, and extracts specific, citable claims from them. Guide pages and tools read from these claims rather than having figures typed directly into prose, so every figure a reader sees links back to where it came from and when it was last verified. A monitor re-fetches each source and flags genuine content changes for review — nothing is republished automatically.
Source catalogue (32 sources)
Every source in this subject, grouped by issuing authority.
ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority)
ACT Government (Access Canberra)
Australian Property Institute
Buyers agency industry sources (commercial; multiple corroborating)
CFA (Country Fire Authority)
Consumer Affairs Victoria
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria
Department of Education (Victoria)
Department of Education Victoria
EPA Victoria
Homes Victoria
Homes Victoria / Department of Families, Fairness and Housing
LANDATA (operated by SERV, Victorian Government)
NSW Government
NSW Government (NSW Fair Trading)
NT Government
Planning Victoria (Department of Transport and Planning)
Property Agents Board of Tasmania (statutory body)
Public Transport Victoria
Queensland Government (Office of Fair Trading)
Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA)
SA Government (Consumer and Business Services)
VICSES (Victoria State Emergency Service)
Valuer-General Victoria / Land Use Victoria
WA Government (Consumer Protection)
Active claims (36)
Every claim in this subject currently powering a guide, with its confidence and last verification date.
The market (sales comparison) approach to property valuation, as described by the Australian Property Institute's own valuation protocol, estimates a property's value by comparing it against identical or comparable properties for which actual sale price information is available, adjusting for genuine differences between the comparable sales and the subject property. This is the standard approach for residential property, where recent comparable sales are typically available.
A buyer's agent (also called a buyer's advocate, or sometimes marketed as a "property sourcing service") is engaged by and acts for the buyer, not the seller — searching for and shortlisting properties, researching and inspecting them, advising on an offer, negotiating or bidding at auction on the buyer's behalf, and coordinating with other professionals through to settlement.
Buyer's agent fees in Australia are commonly reported as either a percentage of the purchase price (roughly 1.5% to 3%, plus GST) or a flat fee (commonly reported in a roughly $10,000 to $33,000 range depending on service level and location), often with an upfront engagement fee and the balance paid at or near settlement. These are market-reported ranges from multiple industry sources, not a regulated or fixed figure — always confirm the actual fee structure in writing before engaging anyone.
A buyer's agent must hold the same real estate agent licence or registration required of a selling agent in whichever state or territory they operate — it is a regulated activity, not an informal service. REBAA itself requires its members to hold a valid licence in every state or territory they buy in as a condition of membership.
The ACT's Access Canberra publishes an occupational licences register covering licensed real estate agents, searchable through its public registers.
New South Wales runs a free public register, Verify NSW, where a real estate/property agent's licence can be searched and checked by name, licence number, ABN, ACN or location.
The Northern Territory's Licensing NT Public Register lets you check whether an individual, company or firm holds a current real estate/property agent licence.
Queensland's Office of Fair Trading maintains a free public register of licensed property agents, salespeople and corporations, searchable online.
South Australia's Consumer and Business Services maintains a public register of licensed land agents, sales representatives and property managers, searchable by name or licence number.
Tasmania's Property Agents Board maintains a public Register of Property Agents, searchable for individual property agents.
Victoria's Consumer Affairs Victoria maintains a free public register of licensed estate agents, searchable by name, licence number or business location.
Western Australia's Consumer Protection maintains a free public licence and registration search covering real estate agents and sales representatives.
In NSW, property agents (a category that includes buyer's agents) must act in their client's best interests, must declare any personal, family or commercial relationship with a service provider they refer a client to, and are generally prohibited from receiving or requesting gifts or benefits for themselves or another person in circumstances that could reasonably be considered to give rise to a conflict of interest (limited exceptions apply, including gifts under $60). Maximum penalties reach $110,000 for a corporation or $22,000 for an individual.
In Victoria, it is illegal for a licensed estate agent (which includes a buyer's agent) to keep a rebate, monetary or non-monetary, received in connection with a client's transaction — it must be paid to the client, with non-monetary rebates converted to their cash equivalent. An agent who illegally keeps a rebate is liable for a fine of up to 60 penalty units, rising to 240 penalty units for a third offence within 12 months, and a client can recover a rebate they were entitled to but didn't receive.
REBAA (Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia) membership requires holding a valid licence in every state or territory a member buys in, minimum $2 million professional indemnity insurance, at least two years' experience, adherence to REBAA's Code of Conduct (which prohibits members from taking secret commissions or having undisclosed related business activities), and not being involved in any selling-side activity. REBAA itself describes membership as a signal worth checking, not a guarantee — its own guidance recommends independently verifying a prospective buyer's agent's licence with the relevant state regulator regardless of REBAA status.
Victoria's Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO) applies to land that may be at risk from bushfire. Land within the BMO may require a planning permit to develop or subdivide, with the exact requirements set out in the local planning scheme. Whether a specific site falls within the BMO can be checked using the VicPlan tool.
Victoria's Crime Statistics Agency publishes recorded-offence data at multiple geographic levels, including local government area, postcode and suburb, via its own interactive tools — recorded crime is not the same as total crime (only offences reported to and recorded by police are counted), and figures can be affected by non-resident activity such as retail precincts, transport hubs and entertainment districts.
Victoria's quarterly Rental Report calculates median weekly rent from all new rental lettings in the quarter (not existing tenancies), using rental bond lodgement data as a proxy for the private rental market. It excludes student housing, rooming houses, caravans, multiple bonds for share houses, and rooms in dwellings, and its rent index is stratified by location and dwelling type to control for compositional shifts between quarters.
Victoria's EPA Priority Sites Register lists sites that have been issued a clean-up notice, pollution abatement notice, environmental action notice or other formal notice to manage land or groundwater contamination. It is explicitly not a listing of every contaminated site in Victoria, nor every site EPA is aware of — it excludes sites managed by voluntary agreement or by planning-control mechanisms such as a section 173 agreement.
Victoria's Find My School tool lets parents search for their closest and other nearby government schools by entering a residential address, suburb, school name or category (primary, secondary or specialist) — school zone results depend on the exact address entered, not the suburb generally.
The Victorian Property Sales Report is compiled from information lodged at every property sale settlement. Quarterly editions (released March, June, September and December) cover median sale prices by suburb for houses, units and vacant land over a rolling 15-month period; annual editions cover yearly medians by suburb over a 10-year period across Victoria's 79 municipalities.
Victoria's official land information service, LANDATA (operated by SERV), sells a Property Sales History and Valuation Report (past transactions and sale prices for one specific property) and a Property Sales (Rates Objection) Report, which provides sales for similar nearby properties over the surrounding 12-month period — the same evidence base the Victorian government itself requires to formally object to a council rates or land tax valuation.
ACARA's My School website publishes nationally consistent school-level data for every school in Australia, including each school's student profile, NAPLAN performance and funding, to support transparency and accountability — it is a data-reporting tool, not an official ranking of schools.
A Victorian planning property report (generated via VicPlan) includes a planning zone map, separate maps for each planning overlay affecting the property or parcel, links to the zone and overlay provisions in the local planning scheme, whether the property is on the Victorian Heritage Register, whether it is in a designated bushfire-prone area, whether it falls within the Melbourne strategic assessment area, and whether it is in an area of Aboriginal cultural heritage sensitivity.
Public Transport Victoria's Timetable API provides scheduled (not real-time observed) train, tram and bus route, stop and timetable data across the Victorian public transport network.
Victoria's Urban Development Program provides annual reporting on the supply of greenfield residential land, the pipeline of major residential redevelopment projects in established areas, and industrial land supply, covering both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Find my School (findmyschool.vic.gov.au) is the official and most up to date source of Victorian school zones. The Department of Education does not endorse zone advice from real estate agents or other websites.
Schools may ask for documents to verify a child's permanent address, such as a rental agreement, an exchanged contract of sale or other official documents, showing the same full name and address of a parent or carer as the enrolment application. Applications may not succeed if the required information isn't provided or isn't genuine.
Where a school lacks space for students from outside its zone, the Placement Policy's priority order applies: first students with a sibling at the same permanent address attending the school at the same time, then all other students in order of how close their permanent address is to the school. Compassionate-grounds applications are considered case by case.
A child's permanent address is where they live at the time of seeking enrolment. If they live at more than one address, it's the one where they spend most weekdays; if the time is equal, any of those addresses can be used.
Single-sex local schools have a zone, drawn differently because they are a local school for one sex only. An address in both a co-educational and a single-sex secondary zone has both as local schools, and a property crossed by a zone boundary has the right to attend any of those schools.
Some government schools have no school zone because they aren't local schools: specialist schools for students with disability, flexible learning schools, English language schools and selective entry high schools.
A local school is usually the nearest government school: in a straight line from the permanent address in metropolitan Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, and by the shortest practical road route elsewhere in Victoria. Some zones are adjusted to improve access or manage enrolment demand, and neighbouring zones are adjusted with them so every child has a local school. Zones are not defined by suburb boundaries.
Every eligible child has the right to attend their local school — the designated neighbourhood government school for the school zone their permanent address is in. The right is set out in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006: a child who lives in the zone must be offered a place, regardless of the school's capacity.
The Department reviews school zones every year and a small number change, for example when new schools open. Find my School shows the zones for the current and the following enrolment year. Most zones don't change, and a child already enrolled doesn't have to move schools because a zone changed.
VICSES publishes Local Flood Guides for many (not all) flood-prone Victorian communities, searchable by suburb, to help residents understand local riverine and flash-flood risk and how to prepare for and respond to flood warnings. A suburb without a published guide does not necessarily mean an absence of flood risk — it means no guide has been produced for that area.
Change log
Real output from Delora's source-monitoring pipeline for this subject's sources — content changes flagged for human review, not auto-published.
About the entries below: these were flagged by an early version of Delora's monitor, which hashed raw page bytes and was fooled by cache-busting parameters and ad/tracking snippets that change on every request with no real content change. The monitor was fixed to hash cleaned page text instead, and a re-run confirmed these were false positives — shown here rather than deleted, because a change log that hides its own mistakes isn't trustworthy.
This catalogue reflects Delora's own knowledge graph as of the date shown against each source, not a live feed of the original agency's site. If a figure here looks out of date, the linked official source is always the authority — please let us know.