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About complex addressing

In Victoria, most public places, dwellings and locations are required to be named and addressed according to specific standards. This enables these sites to be included in Victoria’s authoritative Vicmap spatial data and provide vital services and emergency response to these sites.

The proper numbering and naming of roads and geographic places enables these sites to be clearly identified and a precise location to be determined.

Victoria's complex site addressing program

Geographic Names Victoria, Vicmap, emergency services and other stakeholder organisations, launched the complex site addressing program in 2015.

The complex site addressing program aims to provide a unique address for each sub-address within large or complex sites.

By doing this, the program will improve the property addressing system in Victoria and support efficient and effective delivery of:

  • emergency services
  • postal services
  • utility services
  • a range of government activities

What is a complex site?

In Victoria, naming of places must follow the Naming rules for places in Victoria, Statutory requirements for naming roads, features and localities 2017. Read more in the naming rules.

Some private sites are currently not addressed in accordance with the naming rules.

These sites are often referred to as ‘complex sites’ because they have a single-entry point and a single address in Vicmap, but have numerous buildings and dwellings (complexes) within the site.

Examples of these complex sites commonly include:

  • Caravan parks
  • Schools
  • Universities
  • Shopping centres
  • Retirement villages
  • Housing estates
  • Industrial sites
  • Tourist venues
  • Sporting precincts
  • Closed-gate communities
  • Solar and wind farms

Improving address accuracy

In Victoria, emergency services use the state’s spatial data, Vicmap, to verify a caller’s location and dispatch a responder accordingly.

Unique and accurate place naming reduces the chance of delaying service providers – such as emergency services – when they need to find and access a particular location.

Retirement villages

Retirement village addresses captured by local council as one address point have been reviewed, and 90% have been processed across the state.

This has made the addresses for retirement villages more accurate and accessible for emergency services dispatch.

Solar and wind farms

A wind and solar farm addressing standard is in final draft mode and continues to be refined to help service delivery to these complex sites.

A proof of concept program is nearly complete for several wind farms in western Victoria. This will become the complex addressing model into the future.

Next steps for managers of complex sites

An information flyer is available for managers of complex sites.

The flyer describes the addressing information that should be provided by site managers to their council.

Once this information has been provided to council, it can then be uploaded to the Vicmap Address dataset.

How to get help

In the first instance, contact your local council.

For additional information on this program, please contact the Vicmap Helpdesk.

Learn more about Vicmap Address

Page last updated: 11/07/23