Non ABS Structures
The update schedule for some Non ABS Structures will change slightly:
- The ABS will continue to release Local Government Areas annually, generally in July
- State Electoral Divisions and Commonwealth Electoral Divisions will be updated only in years where there have been electoral redistributions.
The ABS will support users accessing data on redistributed boundaries outside of this release schedule through the provision of allocation and correspondence files. Changes to geographies with a five yearly update schedule will also be supported using correspondences.
|
Non ABS geography | Update schedule |
|
Local Government Areas (LGA) | Annual |
State Electoral Divisions (SED) | Annual (only when redistributions have occurred) |
Commonwealth Electoral Divisions (CED) | Annual (only when redistributions have occurred) |
Postal Areas (POA) | 2021 – Every five years |
Tourism Regions (TR) | 2021 – Every five years |
Australian Drainage Divisions (ADD) | 2021 – Every five years |
Suburbs and Localities (SAL) | 2021 – Every five years |
Destination Zones (DZN) | 2021 – Every five years |
|
State Electoral Divisions and Commonwealth Electoral Divisions
Both State Electoral Divisions and Commonwealth Electoral Divisions will be constructed from Mesh Blocks rather than SA1s. A majority of consultation respondents were supportive of this change as it will result in more accurate approximations of electoral boundaries.
Natural Resource Management Regions and Australian Drainage Divisions
Natural Resource Management Regions (NRMRs) are not currently planned to be included in ASGS Ed. 3. Responses to consultation suggested that NRMRs are rarely used by ABS data users and there are no ABS statistical releases currently planned for NRMRs. It will still be possible to obtain ABS data on these boundaries through statistical consultancies.
The ABS will continue to include Australian Drainage Divisions (ADDs) in ASGS Ed. 3 and these will be approximated using Mesh Blocks.
Destination Zones
Destination Zones will be officially incorporated into ASGS Ed. 3 as part of Non ABS Structures. The ABS already provide extensive support to construct Destination Zones which will facilitate their incorporation into the official ASGS. Destination Zones are aggregated from Mesh Blocks and designed in collaboration with the State and Territory transport authorities. These boundaries are used to release Place of Work based statistics from the Census.
Changes to Non ABS Structures discussed in this paper are shown on the ASGS diagram below.
