The G-NAF dataset of over 15 million addresses is freely available to the public and updated every 3 months. That means Australia’s governments and businesses can easily access accurate, up-to-date address data to provide better services.
G-NAF is created by Geoscape Australia, a company owned by Australia’s federal, state and territory governments. Geoscape has been creating location datasets for government and business since 2001, and the G-NAF data was first made public in 2015.
Some of the things G-NAF has been used for include:
- helping emergency services locate building access points
- validating addresses for online forms
- optimising Australia Post delivery routes
- managing border crossings during COVID-19
- infrastructure and land use planning
- helping banks and insurers assess property risk
- improving the quality of Census data
- helping the Australian Electoral Commission manage the electoral roll.
The Australian Government signed a contract extension with Geoscape in July 2023 and committed $42.4 million to ensure G-NAF data remains freely available until mid-2029.
A 2022 study by Lateral Economics estimated that open G-NAF would provide $1.4 billion in economic benefit to the Australian community over 15 years.
Geoscape also publish an Administrative Boundaries (AB) dataset showing government, statistical and electoral boundaries. These data complement G-NAF location data.