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Previous versions of the Geoscape Administrative Boundaries

Created 12/11/2018

Updated 03/09/2025

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Please note this dataset is an archived version of the Administrative Boundaries (AB). For the latest version of the AB please go to this url: https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/geoscape-administrative-boundaries

Geoscape Administrative Boundaries is Australia’s most comprehensive national collection of boundaries, including government, statistical and electoral boundaries. It is built and maintained by Geoscape Australia using authoritative government data. Further information about contributors to Administrative Boundaries is available here.

This dataset comprises seven Geoscape products:

  • Localities
  • Local Government Areas (LGAs)
  • Wards
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Boundaries
  • Electoral Boundaries
  • State Boundaries and
  • Town Points

Updated versions of Administrative Boundaries are published on a quarterly basis.

Users have the option to download datasets with feature coordinates referencing either GDA94 or GDA2020 datums.

Notable changes in the May 2025 Administrative Boundaries release

  • Victorian Wards have seen almost half of the dataset change now reflecting the boundaries from the 2024 subdivision review. https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/electoral-boundaries/council-reviews/ subdivision-reviews.

  • There have been spatial changes (area) greater than 1 km2 to 66 wards in Victoria.

  • One new locality ‘Kenwick Island’ has been added to the local Government area ‘Mackay Regional’ in Queensland.

  • There have been spatial changes(area) greater than 1 km2 to the local government areas 'Burke Shire' and 'Mount Isa City' in Queensland.

  • There have been spatial changes(area) greater than 1 km2 to the localities ‘Nicholson’, ‘Lawn Hill’ and ‘Coral Sea’ in Queensland and ‘Calguna’, ‘Israelite Bay’ and ‘Balladonia’ in Western Australia.

  • An update to the NT Commonwealth Electoral Boundaries has been applied to reflect the redistribution of the boundaries gazetted on 4 March 2025.

  • Geoscape has become aware that the DATE_CREATED and DATE_RETIRED attributes in the commonwealth_electoral_polygon MapInfo TAB tables were incorrectly ordered and did not match the product data model. These attributes have been re-ordered to match the data model for the May 2025 release.

Further information on Administrative Boundaries, including FAQs on the data, is available here or through Geoscape Australia’s network of partners. They provide a range of commercial products based on Administrative Boundaries, including software solutions, consultancy and support.

Note: Since the decommissioning of National Map, the Administrative Boundaries layers are instead available from the Digital Atlas of Australia. Users can view most of the Admin Boundary layers within Digital Atlas itself or consume the REST webservice feature layer within their own mapping tools.

License Information

The Australian Government has negotiated the release of Administrative Boundaries to the whole economy under an open CCBY 4.0 licence.

Users must only use the data in ways that are consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles issued under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Users must also note the following attribution requirements:

Preferred attribution for the Licensed Material:

Administrative Boundaries © Geoscape Australia licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).

Preferred attribution for Adapted Material:

Incorporates or developed using Administrative Boundaries © Geoscape Australia licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).

What to Expect When You Download Administrative Boundaries

Administrative Boundaries is large dataset (around 1.5GB unpacked), made up of seven themes each containing multiple layers.

Users are advised to read the technical documentation including the product change notices and the individual product descriptions before downloading and using the product.

Files and APIs

Additional Info

Field Value
Title Previous versions of the Geoscape Administrative Boundaries
Language English
Licence Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/b4ad5702-ea2b-4f04-833c-d0229bfd689e
Contact Point
Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR)
data@industry.gov.au
Reference Period 01/02/2016
Geospatial Coverage http://www.ga.gov.au/place-names/PlaceDetails.jsp?submit1=GA1
Data Portal Data.gov.au