Highlands · Suburb / Locality

Walkability in Highlands

How much of daily life sits within a walk of home — a transparent 0–10 walkability score and the everyday destinations you can reach on foot: shops, public transport, schools, parks and health services, plus the streets and terrain in between.

Zero per cent of homes in Highlands meet the 15-minute-city test, meaning no one can reach five key amenities on foot. This is far below the 74.3% typical for Victoria, leaving the area almost entirely car-dependent. With a walkability score of 0.1, residents must rely on vehicles for nearly every daily need.

Open map →
📍 Highlands, Suburb / Locality

Where Highlands sits — Walkability score

0.1 Car-dependent
  • 0.0–0.4: 7643 areas
  • 0.4–0.7: 936 areas
  • 0.7–1.1: 607 areas
  • 1.1–1.4: 409 areas
  • 1.4–1.8: 339 areas
  • 1.8–2.1: 286 areas
  • 2.1–2.5: 268 areas
  • 2.5–2.9: 253 areas
  • 2.9–3.2: 267 areas
  • 3.2–3.6: 273 areas
  • 3.6–3.9: 281 areas
  • 3.9–4.3: 291 areas
  • 4.3–4.6: 311 areas
  • 4.6–5.0: 280 areas
  • 5.0–5.4: 308 areas
  • 5.4–5.7: 296 areas
  • 5.7–6.1: 271 areas
  • 6.1–6.4: 257 areas
  • 6.4–6.8: 245 areas
  • 6.8–7.1: 204 areas
  • 7.1–7.5: 211 areas
  • 7.5–7.9: 167 areas
  • 7.9–8.2: 188 areas
  • 8.2–8.6: 145 areas
  • 8.6–8.9: 126 areas
  • 8.9–9.3: 95 areas
  • 9.3–9.6: 62 areas
  • 9.6–10.0: 23 areas

All suburb / locality areas, 2021. The marker is Highlands — car-dependent of areas.

Walkability score compared with the state and national average
Highlands0.1
3660, VIC 4.7
Victoria 6.4

Walking times to everyday amenities

Share of homes (G-NAF addresses) in Highlands by walking time to the nearest amenity of each type, on an elevation-aware pedestrian network. How we calculate this →

The score

The overall walkability score and how much of daily life is a short walk away.

The walkability score is 0.1, which is far below the Victorian figure of 6.4. Only 0.1 amenity types are typically within a 15-minute walk here, compared to 6.0 across the state.

0.1

Car-dependent of suburb / locality areas.

A 0–10 score for how much of daily life sits within an easy walk of the average home — weighing how close groceries, public transport, cafés, parks, health services, schools, culture and everyday services are, and how many of each. Walking times are measured on an elevation-aware pedestrian network, so hills count against reach. The methodology page describes how the score is put together.

0.1

Lower than 61% of suburb / locality areas.

How many of the eight everyday amenity types — groceries, food & drink, health, schools, parks, culture, everyday services and public transport — the average home can reach on foot within 15 minutes, out of 8.

0.0%

Lower than 99% of suburb / locality areas.

Share of local homes that can reach at least five of the eight everyday amenity types within a 15-minute walk — the "15-minute city" test. Homes are counted as addresses (G-NAF), not people.

What's in walking distance

How many homes can walk to groceries, transport, schools, parks and health services.

Public transport, schools, health services, and groceries are all out of reach for every home, with 100% of residents living more than 30 minutes away from them. Parks are the only accessible amenity, though only 10.8% of homes are within a 15-minute walk of one.

Streets & terrain

Amenity density, how well the streets connect, and how hilly the walk is.

The terrain in Highlands is quite steep, with a mean slope of 10.6%, which is well above the Victorian average of 4.7%. There are 0 intersections per square kilometre, and there are 13.2 walkable amenities per 1,000 residents, a little below the state figure of 15.7.

13.2

Lower than 51% of suburb / locality areas.

Walkable amenities — shops, cafés, parks, health services, schools, cultural and community places, everyday services and public-transport stops — per 1,000 residents. Measures how much is around, apart from how far it is to walk there.

10.6%

Higher than 83% of suburb / locality areas.

Average terrain slope across the area, as a percent grade. Steeper ground shortens how far people will walk; it is already folded into the walkability score through the elevation-aware pedestrian network, and is shown here on its own for context.

Sources

  • Walkability (OpenStreetMap, GTFS, ACARA & G-NAF, via Valhalla) — OpenStreetMap contributors, state transport agencies, ACARA & Geoscape Australia, 2026 (ODbL 1.0 + CC BY).

More for Highlands

Cite this page

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Walkability in Highlands [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/sal/SAL21186/highlands/topic/walkability