This data provides the major urban area boundaries used when setting noise limits for commercial, industrial and trade premises.
The Environment Protection Regulations 2021 and the incorporated Noise Protocol document, Noise limit and assessment protocol for the control of noise from commercial, industrial and trade premises and entertainment venues (EPA publication 1826) set the limits for commercial, industrial and trade noise.
There are two methods for setting the noise limits depending on the location of the residence or other noise sensitive area.
• major urban areas – large regional towns, cities and Melbourne, or
• rural areas.
The major urban area boundaries are aligned with:
• The Melbourne metropolitan Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) (Vicmap Planning - Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, 2020)
• If outside of the Melbourne UGB, the UGB of any other municipality with a population greater than 7,000 persons. Obtained from the relevant authority upon request or digitised from current published documentation.
• If outside of a UGB, the Urban Centre and Localities (UCL) boundary (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016) of an urban centre with a population greater than 7,000 persons, including land within the whole of any Residential, Industrial, Commercial or Urban Growth zone from the Planning Scheme Zones (Vicmap Planning - Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, 2020) that are crossed by the UCL boundary.
The dataset is generated each fortnight based on current planning scheme zones combined with the Melbourne UGB, the Greater Bendigo UGB, and the Urban Centre and Locality (UCL) ASGS Ed 2016 Digital Boundaries in ESRI Shapfile format’ [sic] from https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/1270.0.55.004July%202016?OpenDocument.