Australia has 8 state and territory planning systems and roughly 537 councils — every one with its own LEP or equivalent. ZoneDSS resolves them. Reports and the Spatial Intelligence maps are live in NSW, QLD & VIC today, with the rest rolling out across 2026.
State coverage
Every state has its own planning system. We're building per-state from the ground up — every council's LEP, every state SEPP, every overlay. NSW, QLD & VIC are live in the app; the NSW suburb library is fully browsable here, with QLD and VIC rolling out; the rest are on the roadmap.
All NSW councils — Sydney metro, Hunter, Illawarra, Central Coast, regional. Every LEP, SEPP, and DCP resolved per address.
Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and regional Victoria. Victorian Planning Provisions zones, overlays, development potential and rent resolved per address — with a full suburb library.
Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Cairns and every regional council. Council planning schemes, zoning, hazard overlays and demographics resolved per address — with a full suburb library.
Perth, Fremantle, Mandurah and the regional WA councils. Local Planning Schemes coming after east-coast states.
Adelaide and SA regional councils. Planning and Design Code coverage — on the rollout list.
Hobart, Launceston and the Tasmanian regional councils. Tasmanian Planning Scheme rollout to follow.
Darwin, Alice Springs and the NT councils. NT Planning Scheme coverage — on the roadmap.
Canberra. Single Territory government — Territory Plan rather than council LEPs. Coming after the larger states.
Featured suburbs
Top suburbs ranked by sales volume and DA activity. The browsable suburb library is NSW today — QLD and VIC are rolling out.
How Australian planning works
Unlike the UK or France, Australia has no federal planning system. Every property is governed by three layers — state, region, and council. They all interact, and they often conflict.
Each state has its own planning act (NSW EP&A Act 1979, VIC Planning & Environment Act 1987, QLD Planning Act 2016, etc.) and issues state-wide policies that override council rules — SEPPs in NSW, VPPs in Victoria, State Planning Regulatory Provisions in QLD.
Each of the ~537 councils writes its own primary planning instrument — Local Environmental Plan (NSW), Planning Scheme (VIC, QLD), Local Planning Scheme (WA), Planning & Design Code (SA). Sets the zone, height, FSR, lot size, and permitted uses.
Council-level detailed design rules — Development Control Plans (NSW), Local Planning Policies (WA), or Planning Scheme Policies (QLD). Setbacks, materials, parking, landscaping, character. Used to assess every DA against the principal instrument.
All three layers, resolved per address.
Most planning tools surface one layer at a time — the council's LEP, or just the state map. ZoneDSS resolves all three for your specific lot, surfaces every conflict, and cites every clause.
FAQs
Live with the full suburb library: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland. The United States (New York) is in preview. Other states are on the roadmap across 2026. Sign up to be notified when your state launches.
Planning in Australia is administered at the state and council level — there is no federal planning authority. Each state has its own planning act (e.g. NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, Victoria's Planning and Environment Act 1987, QLD's Planning Act 2016), and each of Australia's ~537 councils writes its own Local Environmental Plan (LEP) or equivalent. On top of that, states issue State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) or equivalents that override or supplement the council rules. ZoneDSS resolves all three layers for any address.
An LGA (Local Government Area) is the geographic area governed by a council. "Council", "shire", "city", "municipality" and "borough" are all names for the same thing — local governments. There are about 537 LGAs across Australia. Each one writes its own planning instrument and approves its own development applications.
Each state runs an official planning portal (NSW ePlanning Portal, Victoria's VicPlan, Queensland's eDA, etc.) where you can look up zoning by address. ZoneDSS goes further — we resolve the zone, every applicable overlay, every state policy that modifies the rules, and every detailed council design control, then present them per address with citations to the source clauses.
Yes — full reports are live for any address in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, and the United States (New York) is in preview. The website's browsable suburb library currently covers NSW (4,610 suburbs across 131 councils); QLD and VIC suburb libraries are rolling out. Other states roll out across 2026 — sign up to be notified when your state goes live.
Most planning tools either (a) scrape council planning portals and present what's already there, or (b) ask an AI to read the documents and guess. ZoneDSS is different — we extract every rule, every overlay, and every cross-instrument override into a structured database, then compute the answer for any address. Same question, same answer, every time, cited to source. AI is the presentation layer, not the source of truth.
Live across NSW, QLD & VIC, with the United States in preview — every other state on the roadmap for 2026.
Run a report — from A$2914-section report · LEP + SEPP + DCP cross-referenced · cited to source clauses
State and council coverage data drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, state planning portals, and council registries. Live planning records aggregated from the NSW ePlanning Portal, NSW Property Sales Information, NSW Spatial Services overlays, and ABS Census 2021 — with QLD and VIC planning data loaded and reports live in the app. Aggregated by ZoneDSS · last updated 2026-04-27.
Country-level summaries — drill into a state to see council-by-council and suburb-by-suburb planning detail. How ZoneDSS works →