1270.0.55.003 - Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 3 - Non ABS Structures, July 2013  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 23/07/2013   
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THE 2013 UPDATE OF ASGS NON-ABS STRUCTURES

This product releases updates to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Non-ABS Structure regions that have changed since the 1 July 2012. Changes have occurred in the Local Government Areas (LGA), the Commonwealth Electoral Divisions (CED) and Tourism Regions (TR).

The ASGS brings all the regions for which the ABS publishes statistics within the one framework and has been in use for the collection and dissemination of geographically classified statistics since 1 July 2011. It is the framework for understanding and interpreting the geographical context of statistics published by the ABS. The ABS also encourages the use of the ASGS by other organisations to improve the comparability and usefulness of statistics generally.

The Non-ABS Structures of the ASGS bring together those regions which are not defined by the ABS, but which are supported by the ABS. They generally represent administrative regions and are approximated by Mesh Block (MB), Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) or Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2).

As the Non-ABS Structures represent regions that are subject to ongoing change, this update to the Non-ABS Structures contains revised digital boundaries, codes and labels for regions that have changed since the last edition. The individual structures are only updated where significant change has occurred in the past year.

Detailed information about Non-ABS Structures including the publication, 2011 digital boundaries and allocation tables are in the 2011 edition of this publication:

Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 3 - Non ABS Structures, July 2011 (cat no. 1270.0.55.003)


LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS (LGA)

Local Government Areas (LGAs) are an ABS approximation of officially gazetted LGAs as defined by each State and Territory (S/T) local government departments.

ABS approximated LGAs cover incorporated areas of Australia. Incorporated areas are legally designated parts of S/T over which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility. There are parts of Australia not administered by incorporated bodies. These regions are identified as 'Unincorporated' in the ABS LGA structure. Unincorporated areas are represented as spatial records in the 2013 LGA digital boundaries. Previous LGA editions for 2011 and 2012 do not contain spatial objects in their respective digital boundaries for Unincorporated areas.

Further information about LGAs can be found in the 2011 publication of the Non-ABS Structures:

ASGS Non ABS Structures July 2011 - Chapter 2 Local Government Areas

Changes to ABS approximated LGAs are only made when a whole MB can be allocated to represent the official LGA change. If the MB cannot be used to approximate the change, the ABS LGA has remained the same.


COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL DIVISIONS (CED)

Commonwealth Electoral Divisions (CED) are an ABS approximation of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) federal electoral division boundaries. An AEC federal electoral division boundary is an area legally prescribed for the purpose of returning one member to the House of Representatives, Australia's Federal Lower House of Parliament. The 2013 release of CED digital boundaries are based upon the official AEC federal electoral division boundaries to be used for the 2013 Federal Elections, as released by PSMA Australia in May 2012.

CEDs are constructed from allocations of whole SA1s.

These CED boundaries form the basis of 2011 Census data released in the ABS Stats mobile application and made available in TableBuilder in 2013.

Further information about CEDs can be found in the 2011 publication of the Non-ABS Structures:

ASGS Non ABS Structures July 2011 - Chapter 5 Commonwealth Electoral Divisions


TOURISM REGIONS (TR)

Tourism Regions (TR) are provided by Tourism Research Australia (TRA) which are part of the Australian Government Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.

The TRs are updated annually by TRA in consultation with State and Territory (S/T) tourism organisations. The number of TRs, their names and their boundaries vary over time. The TRs are constructed from allocations of whole SA2s.

Further information about TRs can be found in the 2011 publication of the Non-ABS Structures:

ASGS Non ABS Structures July 2011 - Chapter 9 Tourism Regions