Contaminated and regulated sites
/v1/suburbs/{suburb_name}/environment/contaminated-land5¢ per callHow many mapped contaminated or regulated sites sit inside a suburb, how many are within 1 km of its centre, and how far the nearest one is, for NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
Coverage: NSW, Vic, Qld, SA and WA suburbs only (14,124 suburbs); no rows for Tas, ACT, NT or other territories. Current to 2026-10-01. Full description, field list and method: /v1/datasets/contaminated-land.
Exact suburb identifier required. Exact official suburb name (SAL), e.g. Burwood (NSW) — many suburbs carry a state suffix. If starting from free text or an unverified bare name, first call GET /v1/geocode/suburb?q=<text>, then use the exact data[].area_name it returns. Suburb data endpoints do not guess a state or typo-correct names.
Authorization
Request
The only values you send. Fields under Responses below are what comes back — you never pass those.
Path parameters
suburb_namestringrequiredExact official suburb name (SAL), e.g. `Burwood (NSW)` — many suburbs carry a state suffix. If starting from free text or an unverified bare name, first call `GET /v1/geocode/suburb?q=<text>`, then use the exact `data[].area_name` it returns. Suburb data endpoints do not guess a state or typo-correct names.
Query parameters
fieldsstringoptionalComma-separated subset of: sites_mapped, sites_within_1km_of_centre, sites_per_km2, nearest_site_m. Omit for all.
fromstringoptionalFirst period to include: 2020, 2020-Q3, 2020-07 or 2020-07-01.
tostringoptionalLast period to include, same formats as `from`.
Responses
Successful Response
datasetstringalways returnedDataset slug; describe it with /v1/datasets/{slug}.
levelstringalways returnedsuburb, lga or block.
areastringalways returnedCanonical name (or mesh-block code) of the area answered.
period_typestringalways returnedsnapshot, year, financial_year, quarter or month.
as_ofstring · datealways returnedDate the dataset is current to. Values are never withheld for age; check this instead.
modelledbooleanalways returnedTrue when the figures are estimates from a model rather than counts or measurements.
fieldsarray of DatasetFieldSeriesalways returned/v1/suburbs/{suburb_name}/environment/contaminated-landcurl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/suburbs/Belmont%20North/environment/contaminated-land' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer test'{
"data": {
"dataset": "contaminated-land",
"level": "suburb",
"area": "Subiaco",
"period_type": "snapshot",
"as_of": "2026-10-01",
"modelled": false,
"fields": [
{
"field": "sites_mapped",
"name": "Mapped sites in suburb",
"unit": "count",
"values": [
{
"period": "2026-10-01",
"period_start": "2026-10-01",
"value": 33
}
]
},
{
"field": "sites_within_1km_of_centre",
"name": "Sites within 1 km of centre",
"unit": "count",
"values": [
{
"period": "2026-10-01",
"period_start": "2026-10-01",
"value": 32
}
]
},
{
"field": "sites_per_km2",
"name": "Sites per square kilometre",
"unit": "count/km2",
"values": [
{
"period": "2026-10-01",
"period_start": "2026-10-01",
"value": 10.54633
}
]
}
]
}
}About this dataset
NSW, Vic, Qld, SA and WA suburbs only (14,124 suburbs); no rows for Tas, ACT, NT or other territories. Current to 2026-10-01; refreshed yearly.
What it is
A count of mapped contaminated-land and regulated-site locations (former gasworks, service stations, depots, industrial sites and similar places that a state environment regulator has listed) for each suburb in five states, plus the distance from the suburb centre to the nearest listed site.
What it shows
Per suburb: the number of listed site locations inside the suburb boundary; the number within 1 km of the suburb's centre point; the number per square kilometre; and the straight-line distance in metres from the centre point to the nearest listed site anywhere (which can be outside the suburb). A suburb with no listed site is returned with 0 sites, not left out.
Why use it
Contamination history affects what can be built or dug on a block, insurance and lending, and buyer caution. A quick way to flag suburbs with a heavy industrial or fuel-station legacy, or to rank suburbs by how close the nearest listed site is, before a due-diligence check on a specific address.
How it is built
We hold the location of each listed site as a point and assign it to the suburb polygon it falls in. Counts are of listed locations, not of separately contaminated parcels: one large site can appear as several points, and a listing means a site is on a register, not that it is currently unsafe. Coverage is New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia only; Tasmania, the ACT, the Northern Territory and other territories have no data here and return no rows. Each state keeps its register on its own rules, so counts are not comparable one-to-one between states (NSW lists only sites under formal regulatory notice, so it has far fewer points per suburb than WA or Queensland). About 0.2 percent of points fall outside any suburb polygon and are left out. Distances are measured from a point guaranteed to lie inside the suburb, not from the geometric centre.
Fields
| Field | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
sites_mappedMapped sites in suburb | count | Number of listed contaminated or regulated site locations inside the suburb boundary. |
sites_within_1km_of_centreSites within 1 km of centre | count | Number of listed site locations within 1 km of the suburb's centre point (may include sites just across the boundary). |
sites_per_km2Sites per square kilometre | count/km2 | Mapped sites divided by the suburb's land area. |
nearest_site_mDistance to nearest site | m | Straight-line distance from the suburb's centre point to the nearest listed site, in metres; the site can lie outside the suburb. |