Metropolitan Adelaide Boundary

'Metropolitan Adelaide' is a geographic area legally defined by a declaration by the Minister responsible for planning and development matters (under section 4 of the Development Act 1993).

The most recent declaration was made on 11 November 1993. The official declaration can be found in the Government Gazette of 11 November 1993, pages 2457 and 2458 [PDF 307.1 KB]. The geographic area is precisely defined in a plan referenced in that declaration and filed in the General Registry Office (as GRO Plan 639/93).

In very general terms, the boundary for metropolitan Adelaide is located:

  • North: north of the Town of Gawler.
  • South: near Sellicks beach (in the City of Onkaparinga).
  • East: through the Adelaide Hills, east of the towns of Bridgewater and One Tree Hill.
  • West: Along the coast, three (3) nautical miles seaward of the low water mark.

To find greater detail online, the boundary is one of the layers on the Atlas of South Australia.

To see the boundary in the context of property boundaries, roads and other features proceed as follows:

  • Go to http://www.atlas.sa.gov.au
  • Select 'Metropolitan Adelaide' as your region, then choose the 'Planning' map topic from the 'Land Management' category
  • Wait for the map to draw
  • The 'Metropolitan Adelaide' layer (see left side-bar) does not draw by default. Check the box next to the layer's name (you may need to scroll down this frame to see all themes)
  • Click on the Refresh Map link
  • Use the Zoom in and zoom out tools to look at the boundary more closely. To use Zoom in, click on the icon and then click and drag on the map to darw a box on the map to define your new area of interest
  • To use other icons, click on the icon to engage its use
  • Vary themes by ticking and unticking, and then click on the Refresh Map icon.

There is a very similar area defined for statistical purposes by the Australian Bureau of Statistics: the Adelaide Statistical Division. This is defined in the ABS publication Australian Standard Geographic Classification, which can download from the ABS' web site.