Local government area boundaries, Queensland
liveThe spatial representation of the local government areas of Queensland. Each feature carries the area's name, its abbreviated name, its local government area code and its area in square kilometres. The layer is read from the Queensland Government's administrative boundaries map service.
Also called: Queensland council boundaries, QLD local government area boundaries shapefile, Queensland LGA boundaries.
- What is in each row?
- Each row is one local government area in Queensland, with its name, its abbreviated name, its code, its area in square kilometres and its boundary as a polygon.
- How do these differ from the ABS local government areas?
- These are the Queensland Government's own boundaries, kept up to date as council areas change. The ABS layer is a statistical approximation of them, built from Mesh Blocks for one edition of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard.
Made for agents
Connect your AI agent
Any agent that connects to publicdata.au/mcp can find this dataset, read its 5 fields, count and filter across all 78 rows and diff its versions. Every answer names the version and carries Natural Resources and Mines's attribution. No key.
Then ask it: What does Local government area boundaries, Queensland hold, and what changed in the newest version?
claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp One command. No key, no account, no sign-up.
Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, and paste https://publicdata.au/mcp.
On the web and in the desktop app.
https://publicdata.au/mcp Streamable HTTP. Cursor, VS Code or any client that connects to a remote MCP server.
Using https://publicdata.au/llms.txt, how many people died on Queensland roads in 2025, by month? For an assistant that reads the web and has no connector.
A dashboard over every row. Click to filter, add panels, share a link or embed a frame.
Query APIFilter and count from a URLaggregate?group=lga&metric=max.ca_area_sqkm
Area of each local government area (km2): 183,346 Cook Shire, 94,665 Diamantina Shire, 82,596 Isaac Regional, 73,235 Bulloo Shire.
Download it as Excel, CSV, JSON and 8 more formats
Pick a format and a version. Excel is picked first because it opens in the tools most offices have. The URL is yours to keep. A dated version keeps its content.
One workbook with a records sheet of 78 typed rows, a fields sheet and a publicdata sheet with the provenance. Dates are real Excel dates. Opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Sheets.
UTF-8 without a byte-order mark, RFC 4180 quoting, one header row using the normalised field names. Opens in Excel, Numbers and Sheets.
One object with a publicdata header (publisher, licence, attribution, version, source hash), a fields list and a records array of 78 objects with typed values. Blank cells are null.
A FeatureCollection with one feature per row, its polygon in GDA2020, and every field as a property. Ready for QGIS, Leaflet, MapLibre and geopandas.
GeoParquet: every field and the polygon itself as a WKB geometry column in GDA2020, with the coordinate system in the file's geo metadata. Reads directly in DuckDB, GeoPandas, QGIS and GDAL.
One database with a records table, a fields table and a publicdata metadata table. Open it with any SQLite client.
One DuckDB database with a records table of typed columns, a fields table and a publicdata metadata table. It attaches read-only over HTTPS, so DuckDB, Python and R can query it without downloading it.
A GeoPackage with one polygon layer, records, in GDA2020 (EPSG:7844), plus the fields and publicdata tables. Drag it into QGIS or ArcGIS.
Vector tiles in one PMTiles file, zoom 0 to 10, every field a property. MapLibre and Leaflet read it over HTTPS with range requests, so a map needs no tile server.
The first line is the provenance header, then one JSON object per line. For streaming and for tools that read line by line.
The same CSV, gzipped, at about a tenth of the size. curl, pandas, DuckDB and R read it directly.
In your own tools
Use it in Excel, R, Python and more
Excel and Power BI read the CSV from its address and refresh from it. The R and Python packages take any dataset on this site by its slug, so a new dataset needs no new release. The DuckDB file attaches read-only over HTTPS, and a query reads only the blocks it touches.
The dated URL in the code never changes. https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/latest/ redirects to the newest version.
https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/latest/data.csv In Excel choose Data, then From Web, and paste this address. Excel keeps it, so Refresh All reads the newest version. A sheet holds about a million rows; past that, load the query to the Data Model.
https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/latest/data.csv In Power BI Desktop choose Get data, then Web, paste this address and choose Anonymous when asked how to sign in. A scheduled refresh reads the same address, so the report follows each new version.
library(publicdataau)
df <- pd_read("qld-lga-boundaries")
pd_attribution(df) install.packages("publicdataau"). pd_read() fetches the version's Parquet file; pd_rows() and pd_aggregate() ask the query API instead, and pd_connect() attaches the DuckDB file.
import publicdata_au as pd_au
df = pd_au.read("qld-lga-boundaries")
df.attrs["publicdata"]["attribution"] pip install "publicdata-au[pandas]". read() fetches the version's Parquet file; rows() and aggregate() ask the query API, and connect() attaches the DuckDB file.
INSTALL httpfs; LOAD httpfs;
ATTACH 'https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/v/2026-10-27/data.duckdb' AS qld_lga_boundaries (READ_ONLY);
SELECT lga_code, count(*) FROM qld_lga_boundaries.records GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC; The DuckDB file attaches read-only over HTTPS and only the blocks a query touches are read. Parquet works the same way: FROM read_parquet(url).
const res = await fetch("https://publicdata.au/api/v1/datasets/qld-lga-boundaries/aggregate?group=lga&metric=max.ca_area_sqkm");
const { rows, publicdata } = await res.json();
console.log(rows, publicdata.attribution); The query API answers a page on any site as well as Node, with no key. It returns the rows and the attribution the licence asks for.
What is in it
Column names are made snake_case and the publisher's original header is kept beside each one. Blank cells are null. Nothing is added, removed, ranked or summarised.
| Field | Type | Publisher's header | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| objectid | integer | objectid | |
| lga | string | lga | |
| abbrev_name | string | abbrev_name | |
| lga_code | string | lga_code | |
| ca_area_sqkm | number | ca_area_sqkm |
Download this table as a data dictionary (Excel), or read it as a Frictionless Table Schema at schema.json. The key is lga_code.
The first 10 rows
From the latest version, in the publisher's order, with every field. A blank cell is shown as null.
| objectid | lga | abbrev_name | lga_code | ca_area_sqkm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aurukun Shire | AURUKUN | 250 | 7407.634426 |
| 2 | Balonne Shire | BALONNE | 300 | 31074.95046 |
| 3 | Banana Shire | BANANA | 370 | 28548.934383 |
| 4 | Barcaldine Regional | BARCALDINE | 410 | 53439.356866 |
| 5 | Barcoo Shire | BARCOO | 450 | 62255.699227 |
| 6 | Blackall Tambo Regional | BLACKALL TAMBO | 760 | 30580.259561 |
| 7 | Boulia Shire | BOULIA | 900 | 60946.439851 |
| 8 | Brisbane City | BRISBANE | 1000 | 1378.040806 |
| 9 | Bulloo Shire | BULLOO | 1750 | 73234.893937 |
| 10 | Bundaberg Regional | BUNDABERG | 1820 | 12403.998809 |
The first row as JSON
As it appears in data.json.
GET https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/latest/data.json
{
"objectid": 1,
"lga": "Aurukun Shire",
"abbrev_name": "AURUKUN",
"lga_code": "250",
"ca_area_sqkm": 7407.634426
}
Query it without downloading
The query API returns only the rows you ask for, as JSON, NDJSON or CSV, from the same typed rows as the files. It needs no key. Build a query here and run it, then copy the URL or the code into your own work.
How filters work
Each filter is field=operator.value in the query string, and every filter must match. A number or date field compares as a number or date, and a text field compares as text. Values are case-sensitive, except that like and ilike ignore case in the ASCII letters A to Z. Prefix not. to negate a filter, as not.eq.value.
| Operator | What it matches |
|---|---|
| eq.value | Equal to the value. |
| neq.value | Not equal to the value. A blank cell does not match. |
| gt.value | Greater than the value. |
| gte.value | Greater than or equal to the value. |
| lt.value | Less than the value. |
| lte.value | Less than or equal to the value. |
| like.*text* | Matches a pattern where * stands for any run of characters, ignoring case in the ASCII letters A to Z. |
| ilike.*text* | The same as like. Both ignore case in ASCII letters only, so É and é differ. |
| in.(a,b,c) | Equal to any value in the list. A value cannot contain a comma. |
| is.null | Blank in the source, or suppressed by the publisher. |
| Parameter | What it does |
|---|---|
| select | Fields to return, comma-separated. Every field when absent. |
| order | field.asc or field.desc, comma-separated. When absent, rows come in the order of the file they are read from. For the newest versions that is the version's own data.parquet, which keeps the publisher's order unless the dataset sorted it. Any other version is read from the Parquet file the answer names in file, and when that file is sorted the answer names its sort in order, which ties follow too. |
| limit | Rows per page, 1 to 10,000. 100 when absent. |
| offset | Rows to skip. The next URL in each answer sets it for you. |
| group | On aggregate, fields to group by, comma-separated. |
| metric | On aggregate, count, sum.field, avg.field, min.field or max.field, comma-separated. count when absent. |
| format | json, ndjson or csv. JSON carries the provenance header, and the others carry it in response headers. |
Without a version the API answers from the newest version, and that answer changes when the publisher releases again. Put versions/<date>/ before rows or aggregate for an answer from that version alone. Every version with a table can be queried, and /api/v1/datasets/<slug>/versions lists them. A query on a version the database does not hold is read from its Parquet file, and one that would read too much of it is refused with DuckDB SQL that answers it from the file. The 2 newest versions are loaded; versions lists them.
The API allows 60 requests in 10 seconds from one address. Above that it answers 429 for 10 seconds with a Retry-After header, a RateLimit-Policy header and a JSON body that gives the limit. Every API answer carries the same RateLimit-Policy. A client should wait the Retry-After seconds, or read the files, which have no limit. openapi.json describes this dataset's query paths for client generators and agents.
https://publicdata.au/mcp is a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP with the same tools, defined in the same place, so a tool added to the pages is added here too. It needs no key and no account. Its row tools and the query API answer every version through one query path, so a tool's answer and the query URL it cites give the same rows. A query that would read too much of a file is refused with DuckDB SQL that answers it from the file. It also has search and fetch, the two tools ChatGPT's deep research and company knowledge call by name, which run search_datasets and read a dataset's record in the shapes those features expect. The row tools are held to the query API's limit of 60 queries in 10 seconds from one address, and each call is two queries because it also counts the matching rows. Add it to Claude Code with claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp, add the URL in Claude as a custom connector, or give it to any client that connects to remote MCP servers. Each dataset with a table is also a resource at https://publicdata.au/d/<slug>/fields.json, which lists its fields with their types, the publisher's descriptions, their ranges and the values they hold, so an agent can read a dataset's shape before it writes a query.
What changed
One version for every release the publisher has made since this site started following the dataset. The date is the day the file changed on the portal.
- 2026-10-27 78 rows+0 added −0 removed 0 changed5 fieldsutf-8a4ab107a0695
The layer states no edit date or dated records, so this version is dated by the portal record.
The publisher's file changed on 2026-10-19, which an earlier version already carries, so this version is dated 2026-10-27.
The publisher offers no file. These bytes are every feature of the layer as the service returned them in WGS84, ordered by its object id, so the same layer gives the same bytes.
- 2026-10-19 78 rows5 fieldsutf-8d2273e637e56
The layer states no edit date or dated records, so this version is dated by the portal record.
The publisher offers no file. These bytes are every feature of the layer as the service returned them in WGS84, ordered by its object id, so the same layer gives the same bytes.
versions.json · changes.json · history.tar.zst (9.3 MB, every version's Parquet and manifest)
Questions
How do I download Local government area boundaries as a CSV file?
Open https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/latest/data.csv. It redirects to the newest dated version, which is https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/v/2026-10-27/data.csv today. The same path serves Excel, JSON, GeoJSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, GeoPackage, PMTiles, NDJSON. A dated URL never changes, so use it when the file must stay the same.
Can I open Local government area boundaries in Excel?
Yes. https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/v/2026-10-27/data.xlsx is a workbook with the 78 rows on a records sheet, the field list on a second sheet and the provenance on a third. The CSV also opens in Excel. https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/v/2026-10-27/data.csv.gz is the CSV at about a tenth of the size.
How often is Local government area boundaries updated?
Natural Resources and Mines releases it as council areas change, about once a year. This site checks the portal every week and adds a dated version when the file changes.
Can I use Local government area boundaries commercially?
Yes. CC BY 4.0 allows commercial use, redistribution and derived works as long as the attribution is kept. The attribution string is in this page's side column and inside every file.
Is this the official source for Local government area boundaries?
No. The publisher is Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development, and its page is https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/local-government-area-boundaries-queensland. National Digital converted the publisher's file to other formats. It renamed and typed the columns and kept only those the schema lists. National Digital made these changes, and the publisher is not responsible for them. The original sits beside every version as source.geojson with its SHA-256, so the two can be compared.
What coordinate system does Local government area boundaries use?
The map service projects the boundaries to WGS84 (EPSG:4326) on request. They are moved to GDA2020 for publication. The GeoJSON file uses GDA2020 as well, which differs from the WGS84 GeoJSON expects by well under a metre.
What this site did to the data. Cells were typed, headers were renamed and the encoding was made UTF-8. Rows were left alone. The publisher's file sits beside every version as source.geojson so the change can be checked.
The licence requires the publisher's attribution. We ask that you also name publicdata.au and link to the version you used.
Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development, Queensland Government, Local government area boundaries - Queensland, sourced 26 October 2026, https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/local-government-area-boundaries-queensland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Serialised and versioned by National Digital at publicdata.au, https://publicdata.au/d/qld-lga-boundaries/v/2026-10-27/
The attribution alone is inside every file. Harvard is the author-date form a report or a brief asks for. Paste the HTML on a web page so the links carry.
Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development states the licence, CC BY 4.0, on its own page, which was read and recorded here on 18 October 2026.
Every fetch reads the licence again and stops when it has changed. The fetch that made version 2026-10-27 read it from www.data.qld.gov.au on 26 October 2026.
- Hugging Faceload_dataset("National-Digital/qld-lga-boundaries")
- Kagglewith a starter notebook
- ZenodoDOI 10.5281/zenodo.23615024
Each copy carries the same attribution and links back to this page.
- datapackage.jsonFrictionless data package pointing at the latest version
- schema.jsonTable Schema for every field
- schema.xlsxthe same field list as an Excel data dictionary
- versions.jsonevery version with date, rows, fields and hash
- changes.jsondiff for every consecutive pair
- manifest.jsonwhere the bytes came from and when
- Query APIfiltered rows and counts without a download
- openapi.jsonOpenAPI 3.1 for this dataset's query paths
- explore/charts and dashboards in the browser, shareable and embeddable
- index.mdthis page as Markdown
This page carries a schema.org Dataset record and is listed in /.well-known/ard.json and /catalog.json.
Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development publishes this table on spatial-gis.information.qld.gov.au. Questions about the content go to the publisher. Questions about the files here go to corrections.
Fetched 26 October 2026. Source SHA-256 a4ab107a06959917…
This page is built from register/qld-lga-boundaries.yaml on GitHub. Anyone can propose a fix to it, such as a clearer description or a field the publisher renamed, as a pull request.
Report a file that differs from the publisher's · How to contribute