Question 1

How do I find my school catchment in Australia?

Accepted Answer

Every Australian government school has a defined intake zone (catchment) — your residential address determines which public school you're entitled to enrol your child in. This finder uses NSW Department of Education open data to match your suburb (or exact address) to the matched primary and high school catchment. Other states have their own finders linked from the schools hub.

Question 2

Are the catchment zones the same as the school's actual enrolment area?

Accepted Answer

Yes — these polygons come directly from NSW Department of Education's published intake zones, refreshed in May 2026. They define the area where every child has a guaranteed enrolment right. Catholic, independent and out-of-area enrolments work differently and aren't catchment-restricted.

Question 3

What if my suburb falls into multiple catchments?

Accepted Answer

Some larger suburbs sit across two or more catchment boundaries. The suburb-level lookup uses the suburb centroid, which gives the most likely match. If you need certainty, use the exact-address lookup option — it runs the same point-in-polygon check against your specific lat/lng.

Question 4

Can I enrol in a public school outside my catchment?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes. Public schools accept out-of-area applications when they have spare capacity, but in-catchment students always get priority. Selective high schools, specialist sport programs and some performing arts streams have their own entry processes that override catchment. Always confirm directly with the school.

Question 5

Where does the data come from?

Accepted Answer

NSW Department of Education publishes school intake zones as open data on data.nsw.gov.au under a Creative Commons Attribution licence. We refresh the dataset each time the department publishes an update — currently May 2026. The geocoding for exact-address lookup uses Mapbox.

school catchment finder

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