National Wards

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 Wards is a spatial representation of the gazetted ward districts, which are a subset of Local Government Area boundaries defined by State and Territory governments. National Wards represent distinct areas within a local government area that relate to the election of councillors for the related local government. National Wards aggregates the representations unique to each jurisdiction into a consistent seamless representation of the wards of Australia. Geoscape welcomes your feedback on the National Wards 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 November 2025 with data extracted on 13 November 2025.

• This release is a full national data population for Version 1.1 of the National Wards product, described by the National Wards Product Guide v1.1.

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

Change Notifications

‘National’ Branding

Geoscape’s Wards product has transitioned to ‘National Wards’, reflecting our focus on a smarter, safer and more productive Australia and our role in the national interest.

Western Australia Retired Wards

The reduction in WA ward records in the November 2025 release is due to the implementation of statewide local government reforms, which required the abolition or consolidation of many wards and a reduction in councillor numbers. These changes are legislated, have been formally gazetted, and are reflected in all authoritative spatial and administrative datasets.

Updates

New and Retired

New

New wards records:

ward_pid	ward_name	lga_pid	state
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

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

Retired

Retired wards records:

ward_pid	ward_name	lga_pid	state
wad3f5e24b4bdc6	Breaksea Ward	lga379ed169b677	WA
waddf6b93e4a293	Central Ward	lga5eef542268b3	WA
wad65e9e5881ebe	Denham Ward	lgac92c57e776fe	WA
wad155e2f821e68	East Ward	lga5eef542268b3	WA
wad8fc1ca757d5b	Frederickstown Ward	lga379ed169b677	WA
wad5aa47266525b	Kalgan Ward	lga379ed169b677	WA
wad04d5ac720f87	Kent - Nornalup Ward	lgadf64019486fb	WA
wadfb124486af5a	North Ward	lga5eef542268b3	WA
wad5bd8c9cbc0e9	Plympton Ward	lga308d7945e467	WA
wadee7233b9f4c7	Preston Pt Ward	lga308d7945e467	WA
wad30655ab2e73e	Richmond Ward	lga308d7945e467	WA
wadc373eb89ac2f	Rural Ward	lga316abd31014a	WA
wad0cb2ad337241	Scotsdale - Shadforth Ward	lgadf64019486fb	WA
wad872d3ad4c0bc	South Ward	lga5eef542268b3	WA
wad17872ac694e0	Town Ward	lga316abd31014a	WA
waddcb1f1326aee	Town Ward	lgadf64019486fb	WA
wad0c3a13326728	Useless Loop - Pastoral Ward	lgac92c57e776fe	WA
wad4b7dcb2d35e6	Vancouver Ward	lga379ed169b677	WA
wad3276b422f380	West Ward	lga379ed169b677	WA
wade87600b13b38	Woodside Ward	lga308d7945e467	WA
wad46ab458b27d0	Yakamia Ward	lga379ed169b677	WA

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

Spatial Changes

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

ward_pid	ward_name	state	Difference_SQKM	Old_SQKM	New_SQKM
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

'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 to note.

Known Issues

Un-enclosed gaps between Wards in NT

There are two un-enclosed gaps present in the Wards data in NT. These gaps are not valid and do not represent rivers. Below, the un-enclosed gaps can be seen between polygons when they are dissolved together.

SA coastline generalisation for Central Ward

Jurisdictional changes to the coastline geometry have resulted in polygon generalisation for ‘Central Ward’ Ward in South Australia. These changes are related to boundary changes made to ‘The DC of Grant’ LGA. This has reduced the number of vertices in the polygons resulting in geometry differences and, in some scenarios, the creation of additional polygons for the LGA. Below is an example where a previous Admin Boundaries LGA outline (blue) can be seen compared to the new Local Government Area product representation (red area).

Geoscape is currently investigating this generalisation with the SA jurisdiction.

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 Wards 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
wards	Additional	0	0	0	0	0	14	0	0	38	52
	Retired	0	0	0	0	0	14	0	0	62	76
	Updated	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	0	0	830	0	0	155	0	468	202	1,655
	% Change	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	-10.62%	-1.43%