Melbourne's urban footprint, 1883 to 2101

Year

1883

Future

Urban area

—

Legend

Urban extent 1883–2015 (DTP)

Built up by 2026

Added by the selected year — committed greenfield, the same in both futures

Future Urban (outside the UGB)

Urban area by year

Year	km²	km² a year

Forecasts and mapping by Informed Decisions (2026), from the Melbourne 2100 Forecast series.

Melbourne’s edge moved outward at close to 25 km² a year from 1954 to 2001. Containment cuts that to about 3, and the edge all but stops after 2045 — just 16 km² in the following fifty-six years. The current paradigm keeps about 10 km² a year going for another seventy-five.

Every figure here is the area actually drawn on the map: the 2026 built-up area, plus the committed estates and Future Urban precincts themselves, each at the share built by the selected year. Up to 2026 that is the generalised boundary, closed at 100 m; after 2026 it is the real parcels, so land left between them is not counted.

Historic layers are Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) Planning Information Services, indicative and for cartographic use only by their own README.