1.3% ▼ -13.7%
Higher than 52% of suburb / locality areas.
- 2011: 1.6%
- 2016: 1.8%
- 2021: 1.3%
Share of occupied private dwellings with no registered motor vehicle.
Desert Springs · Suburb / Locality
Transport & Vehicles in Desert Springs
How households get around — the vehicles they keep and the journey to work.
Very few households in Desert Springs go without a car, with only 1.3% of homes lacking a motor vehicle. This is well below the national figure of 7.4%, reflecting a strong reliance on private transport to get around the area.
Vehicles
Motor vehicles per home, and homes with no car.
Most homes here own multiple cars, with 44.4% having two vehicles and 16.2% owning three. This high rate of ownership means far fewer homes are without a vehicle compared to the rest of the Northern Territory.
Motor vehicles per home
View on map →In Desert Springs, the largest group is 2 vehicles at 45%, followed by 1 vehicle (30%) and 3 vehicles (16%).
Getting to work
How people travel to work.
Driving is the primary way to get to work, with 67.4% of people acting as the driver. Only 3.7% of residents work from home, a figure that is far below the Australian average of 21.0%.
3.7% ▲ +12.6%
Lower than 92% of suburb / locality areas.
- 2011: 3.3%
- 2016: 2.0%
- 2021: 3.7%
Share of employed people aged 15+ who worked at home on census day.
1.7% ▼ -67.8%
Higher than 77% of suburb / locality areas.
- 2011: 5.2%
- 2016: 4.6%
- 2021: 1.7%
Share of employed people who got to work by train, bus, ferry or tram/light rail as their only method of travel on census day.
Public transport access
Stops, services, routes and how far you can get by public transport.
Desert Springs has more public transport stops and routes than about 72% of similar areas. However, with only 66.4 weekly departures per 1,000 people, service levels are far below the Northern Territory figure.
3
Higher than 72% of suburb / locality areas.
Scheduled public-transport stops (bus, train, tram and ferry) located in the area, from the state GTFS feeds.
1.95
Higher than 65% of suburb / locality areas.
Public-transport stops per 1,000 residents — a measure of how densely an area is served (GTFS stops; population from the 2021 Census).
66.4
Higher than 65% of suburb / locality areas.
Scheduled weekly public-transport departures from stops in the area, per 1,000 residents — how often transit actually runs, not just whether a stop exists (GTFS schedules for a representative week; population from the 2021 Census).
1
Higher than 71% of suburb / locality areas.
Distinct public-transport routes serving stops in the area (GTFS feeds).
Getting around
Walking distance to transport and driving time to the city.
It takes a typical resident about 20 minutes to walk to their nearest public transport stop, which is around the middle for similar areas.
20
Higher than 59% of suburb / locality areas.
Walking time, in minutes, from the centre of the area to the nearest public-transport stop, along the OpenStreetMap pedestrian network (Valhalla). Blank where no stop is within a reasonable walk.
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
- Public transport timetables (GTFS) — State & territory transport agencies, 2026 (CC BY 4.0 (WA: custom PTA licence)).
- Road & path network (OpenStreetMap, via Valhalla) — OpenStreetMap contributors, 2026 (ODbL 1.0).
More for Desert Springs
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Transport & Vehicles in Desert Springs [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/sal/SAL70078/desert-springs/topic/transport