National Localities

Disclaimer

Geoscape Australia believes this publication to be correct at the time of printing and does not accept responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of the information herein. Readers should rely on their own skill and judgement to apply information to particular issues.
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Overview

National Localities is a spatial representation of suburbs and localities defined by the State and Territory governments of Australia. The product aggregates the representations unique to each jurisdiction into a consistent seamless representation of the suburbs and localities of Australia. Geoscape welcomes your feedback on the National Localities product. We also publish regular product development updates on our website ( www.geoscape.com.au ).

Release Summary

This product was released to customers on 17 August 2026 with data extracted on 26 June 2026.

This release is a full national data population for Version 1.2 of the National Localities product, described by the National Localities Product Guide v1.2 [Geoscape, 2023] .

Any issues that have been identified for this release are described in the Issues section.

Change Notifications

Versioning Update (Effective June 2026)

Beginning June 2026, all data products will transition to a standardised versioning format: MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT (e.g., 004-000-001). This approach provides a clear and consistent structure, making it easier for users to identify product versions and understand update levels at a glance. The change is intended to improve transparency, reduce ambiguity, and support more efficient integration and usage of our data products.

Implementation of New Zip File Naming and Packaging Standards (Effective August 2026)

As part of ongoing improvements to product consistency and packaging standards, updates to zip file naming conventions and internal packaging structure will be implemented, starting in August 2026.

Zip File Naming

Two standard naming patterns will be used, depending on whether an extract contains spatial information:

  • Spatial Tables:

{PRODUCT-NAME}_{RELEASE YYYYMM}_{REGION}_{CRS}_{FORMAT}_{VERSION MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT}.zip

  • Aspatial (Insights) Tables:

{PRODUCT-NAME}_{RELEASE YYYYMM}_{REGION}_NODATUM_{FORMAT}_{VERSION MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT}.zip

Packaging Structure

From this release, we have updated the folder structure in product packages. Previously, we provided a contents.txt file and a number of internal folders. The .ZIP file packages now only contain data files. We have applied this change to simplify accessing the data.

Product File Changes

To align the naming of the Australia region product files with the state and territory files, an 'australia_' prefix has been added to the table and layer names.

  • For example:

    May 2026 > August 2026

    file name: localities.gdb > australia_localities.gdb

    layer name: localities > australia_localities

  • In GeoJSON, JSON and PSV files, date fields are now represented in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g. 2026-03-31) where previously they were provided in DD-MM-YYYY format (e.g. 31-03-2026).

These changes ensure consistent packaging across all products, reduce complexity, and support improved automation and user experience.

Updates

Name changes

No name changes to note.

New and Retired

New

New localities records:

locality_pid

locality_name

state

loctdZ19s5IyAv_

Barker

NSW

lockCC4EYdQGXid

Napranum

QLD

loccRlVDcfsI0tB

Bularl Di Wunami

WA

'N/A' indicates that no records of this type exist

Retired

Retired localities records:

locality_pid

locality_name

state

loc7ac46c7da92f

King Leopold Ranges

WA

'N/A' indicates that no records of this type exist

Spatial Changes

Spatial changes (area) greater than 1 km2 are shown below:

locality_pid

locality_name

state

Difference_SQKM

Old_SQKM

New_SQKM

locff2a64499c29

Cobbitty

NSW

4

52

56

loc292c1894a629

Mission River

QLD

-2

5568

5566

loce2ab9800756c

Bringelly

NSW

-10

29

19

'N/A' indicates that no records of this type exist

Other Updates

There were no other updates.

Issues

New Issues

No new issues.

Resolved Issues

No resolved issues.

Known Issues

ACT Localities Geodatabase File Name Issue

There is a known issue with QGIS reading the act_localities Geodatabase file. This issue is related to the file name, so simply changing it (e.g. to ‘act_locality.gdb’) will allow it to be opened in QGIS.

Future Considerations

This section outlines enhancements or changes under consideration, but not planned into a specific release. For further details on future initiatives, please contact Geoscape Support.

Annex A – Release Counts

Additional, retired and total National Localities counts and the percent change to the previous release have been listed in the table below.

TABLE

STATISTIC

ACT

NSW

NT

OT

QLD

SA

TAS

VIC

WA

TOTAL

localities

Additional

3

624

0

0

101

47

106

31

186

1,098

Retired

3

623

0

0

99

47

106

31

186

1,095

Updated

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Total

140

4,611

314

6

3,307

1,899

783

2,973

1,752

15,785

% Change

0.00%

0.02%

0.00%

0.00%

0.06%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.02%

References

[Geoscape, 2023]

Geoscape. Localities product guide. 2023. URL: https://docs.geoscape.com.au/projects/localities_guide/en/stable/.