Travel Zones (TZs) are the spatial unit of geography for Transport for NSW (TfNSW). The TZ spatial layer is applied to data sources used by TfNSW for transport modelling and analysis, including the Travel Zone Projections and key transport models such as the Strategic Travel Model (STM). \r \r The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3 boundaries provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) form the foundation of the Travel Zone geography. Generally, a TZ is an aggregation of whole ABS Mesh Blocks. The ASGS are based on population counts, whereas TZ boundaries are defined using population, employment, housing and transport infrastructure, with consideration for planned future changes in land use. Some of the State’s greenfield growth areas have deviated from using whole Mesh Blocks. Instead, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) growth area precincts have been used to create more functional TZs in those areas (for example, the Aerotropolis).\r \r TZs are designed to have standardised trip generation levels across all zones. This causes zones to be different sizes across NSW. As with many other spatial boundaries, TZs tend to be small in areas with high land-use densities and larger in areas of lower density.\r \r As areas and transport infrastructure change over time, TfNSW creates new Travel Zone geography in line with each ABS Census of Population and Housing, the latest being 2021.\r \r Below you can download spatial files of the Travel Zone 2021 (TZ21) geography, the TZ21 fact sheet, as well as concordance tables for various geographies to TZ21 and vice versa.

Postal Areas (POA)

Postal Areas (POAs) are designed to approximate postcode boundaries, as closely as possible. There is not a one-for-one correspondence between Australia Post postcodes and POAs, but these are a good starting point for comparison of Census data with other data collected using postcodes.

Census Postal Areas exclude non-mappable Australia Post postcodes such as:

• post office box postcodes
• some delivery route postcodes, which are also covered by other postcodes (a situation which often occurs in rural areas)
• some postcodes which, because of the application of the 'best fit' principle, do not get a Mesh Block allocated to them.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics (Jul2021-Jun2026), Data services and APIs, ABS Website, accessed 25 July 2023.

https://www.abs.gov.au/website-privacy-copyright-and-disclaimer#copyright-and-creative-commons

Key Attributes:

Population (2021): Total number of residents in each SA1, sourced from the ABS 2021 Census.

Population Density: Persons per square kilometre, based on land area.

Normalized Density Score: A 0–1 scale indicating relative density within Wodonga (0 = lowest density, 1 = highest density).

Usage: This layer is ideal for spatial analysis, urban planning, and infrastructure prioritization, allowing users to assess demographic concentration, compare development intensity across neighborhoods, and correlate population pressure with environmental or urban heat indicators.

This application presents JobSeeker Payment (previously Newstart Allowance) and Youth Allowance (other) recipients by SA2, comparing June 2019 to June 2024, combined with detailed demographics to support a greater understanding of unemployment payment distribution across Australia and changes in payment receipt over time. The number of unemployment payment recipients as of June 2024 is represented by the size of the circle for each SA2 (the larger the circle, the higher number of people receiving an unemployment payment), while the colour of the circle represents the change in unemployment payment receipt (see the legend for further details). Layers can be applied to display further supporting data and once an SA2 has been selected, detailed statistics are available on the ‘SA2 statistics’ page.This application is the result of collaboration between the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Geoscience Australia (GA).The application presents SA2 geographies. Unemployment payments data is published by DSS on data.gov.au. All supporting data is from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 'Data by Region' releases. The datasets included in the app are listed below:DSS Payments by Statistical Area 2*Selected DSS government pensions and allowances from 2019 to 2024 by 2021 SA2Selected DSS government pensions and allowances from 2019 to 2024 by 2021 SA2 TEABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) by 2021 SA2ABS Population and people by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023Regional Population Change 2022-23 by 2021 SA2ABS Economy and industry by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Persons born overseas by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Family and community by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Estimated resident population 2001–2021 by 2021 SA2ABS Education and employment by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Economy and industry by 2021 SA2*Note, periods prior to June 2023 have had a correspondence applied, to align the data to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2021 SA2 boundaries.The application was built using Experience Builder software and designed to display unemployment payment recipient distribution across the country alongside other relevant information. It is intended to familiarise non-GIS professionals with available data and tools, as well as the spatial format. It is not intended to replace GIS analysis for decision making. This application is designed primarily for desktop view. Mobile view may be made available in the future with reduced functionality.More information on data and statisticsDisclaimerTo protect the privacy of Australians, certain data has been modified by authorised entities, in compliance with privacy regulations. Due to this, statistics here should be taken as a guide to inform understanding, please assume a small margin of error when using the app.Data limitations • Areas with small populations (under 500), the data may have a higher margin of error. This is because minor inaccuracies can have a bigger impact in these areas. • In some cases, data may appear to be missing. This is where there is a 'Null' value meaning this information is unavailable for this area. • Total Unemployment Payment recipients are calculated by summing already rounded data, this may result in minor inaccuracies.• The application uses the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics population data available at the time of publication. The differing data dates may cause discrepancies in the calculation of proportional statistics (e.g., a high proportion of Income Support receipt where there has been extensive population growth between 2021 (when the census was collected) and the reported income support data date).Statistical Area Level 2 boundaries Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2s) are areas designed to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically. SA2s are updated every census to reflect current communities and follow suburb or local government areas where appropriate. SA2s are a common standard for understanding and representing population data. Learn more about SA2s.Unemployment payment data An unemployment payment refers to JobSeeker Payment (previously Newstart Allowance) and Youth Allowance (other), which are income support payments made to a recipient that helps with living costs, while they look for work. The income support payment data in this application is published by DSS and represents the number of unique recipients of each payment as at the last Friday of the reported month. To protect individuals’ privacy, all values have been rounded to the nearest 5, values from 1 to 7 are rounded to 5. Zero cells are actual zeros. For older periods, figures between 1-4 were randomly assigned a 0 or a 5. Note: reporting rules and policy settings have changed over time, the data in this application has been updated to align over the reported period. Data for periods prior to 2023 may not align with data previously published. See the DSS data on data.gov.au: DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - quarterly data | data.gov.au.Resources• A guide to Australian Government payments: Information on the different income support payments • Social Security Guide: Information on the legislation and how it's applied • DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics: Quarterly Income Support data release. See ‘Glossary’ and ‘Data Descriptions’ tabs for further data details. • DSS JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance recipients: Monthly JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) data release. Supporting statistics All supporting data and statistics are from the ABS through their data by regions products on the Digital Atlas. Much of this data was collected as part of the most recent census (conducted in 2021). Data not from the census has been labelled accordingly. To learn more please see the data by regions methodology.SEIFA score The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) summarises areas according to their relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage then ranks them. The "IRSAD (percentile)" index used here shows where an area stands nationally in terms of disadvantage or advantage. Lower numbers indicate more disadvantage and higher numbers indicate more advantage. It's presented as a percentile to make it easier to understand the ranking. For example, an area with an IRSAD (percentile) of 5 is in the top 5% of disadvantaged areas in the country. Whereas an area with an IRSAD (percentile) of 96 is in the top 5% of advantaged areas in the country. Learn more about using and interpreting SEIFA data.

Travel Zones (TZs) are the spatial unit of geography defined by Transport Performance and Analytics (TPA), a business unit within Transport for NSW (TfNSW). The TZ spatial layer is applied to data sources used by TfNSW for transport modelling and analysis, including the Household Travel Survey and the Census 2016 Journey to Work data.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Statistical Area boundaries form the foundation of the TZ. Generally, a TZ is larger than a Statistical Area Level 1 or Mesh Block, both ABS geography definitions. The ABS Statistical Areas are based on population counts whereas TZ boundaries are defined using population, employment, housing and transport infrastructure.

TZs are designed to have standardised trip generation levels across all zones. This causes zones to be different sizes across the metropolitan area. As with many other spatial boundaries, TZs tend to be small in areas with high land-use densities and larger in areas of lower density.