Travel Zones (TZs) are the spatial unit of geography for Transport for NSW (TfNSW). The TZ spatial layer is applied to data sources used by TfNSW for transport modelling and analysis, including the Travel Zone Projections and key transport models such as the Strategic Travel Model (STM).

The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3 boundaries provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) form the foundation of the Travel Zone geography. Generally, a TZ is an aggregation of whole ABS Mesh Blocks. The ASGS are based on population counts, whereas TZ boundaries are defined using population, employment, housing and transport infrastructure, with consideration for planned future changes in land use. Some of the State’s greenfield growth areas have deviated from using whole Mesh Blocks. Instead, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) growth area precincts have been used to create more functional TZs in those areas (for example, the Aerotropolis).

TZs are designed to have standardised trip generation levels across all zones. This causes zones to be different sizes across NSW. As with many other spatial boundaries, TZs tend to be small in areas with high land-use densities and larger in areas of lower density.

As areas and transport infrastructure change over time, TfNSW creates new Travel Zone geography in line with each ABS Census of Population and Housing, the latest being 2021.

Below you can download spatial files of the Travel Zone 2021 (TZ21) geography, the TZ21 fact sheet, as well as concordance tables for various geographies to TZ21 and vice versa.