Your postcode decides whether you live in a designated regional area, and your city does not. Parts of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane sit on the regional list.
Almost every guide to regional visa Australia rules tells you the same thing. Everywhere counts as regional except Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. That shorthand gets you most of the way there, and it fails at the exact point where you need a clear answer.
The real rule works on four-digit postcodes. You will find it in a legislative instrument called LIN 22/022, made under regulation 1.15M of the Migration Regulations 1994. It has applied since 5 March 2022. Council boundaries do not appear in it. Greater Capital City boundaries do not appear in it. Only postcodes do.
That difference matters if you live near a boundary. Officers in Victoria sit in a designated regional area. Berwick, eight kilometres away, does not. Jindalee sits inside Brisbane City Council and still appears on the regional list, while central Brisbane does not.
Below you will find the complete 491 visa postcode list taken straight from the instrument, direct answers on the borderline suburbs people search for most, and a simple way to check your own address.
The Short Answer
Both categories count as regional. The instrument splits regional Australia into two groups, and regulation 1.03 of the Migration Regulations treats both groups as designated regional areas:
- Category 2, Cities and Major Regional Centres: Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, Wollongong and the Illawarra, Geelong, and Hobart
- Category 3, Regional Centres and Other Regional Areas: everywhere else on the list, including all of the Northern Territory and Norfolk Island
Your 491 visa application treats the two categories the same way. Both give you access to the visa, both carry the 15 bonus points, and both lead to the Subclass 191 after three years. The split only changes your student and graduate benefits.
Your postcode is the only test. If your four-digit postcode appears in either table below, you live in a designated regional area.
| Does your postcode sit right on a boundary? Send us your address and your occupation. We can check it against the instrument and against that state’s nomination criteria.
CTA: Ask about your postcode → /contact-us |
Is My Suburb Regional? The Borderline Cases
These suburbs generate the most searches, so we checked each one against the postcode bands in LIN 22/022.
| Suburb | Postcode | Band in the instrument | Regional? |
| Pakenham, VIC | 3810 | Victoria, 3809 to 3909 | Yes, Category 3 |
| Officer, VIC | 3809 | Victoria, 3809 to 3909 | Yes, Category 3 |
| Wollert, VIC | 3750 | Victoria, 3430 to 3799 | Yes, Category 3 |
| Berwick, VIC | 3806 | Falls in the 3800 to 3808 gap | No |
| Beaconsfield, VIC | 3807 | Falls in the 3800 to 3808 gap | No |
| Beaconsfield Upper, VIC | 3808 | Falls in the 3800 to 3808 gap | No |
| Newcastle, NSW | 2300 | New South Wales, 2264 to 2308 | Yes, Category 2 |
| Wollongong, NSW | 2500 | New South Wales, 2500 to 2526 | Yes, Category 2 |
| Gosford, NSW | 2250 | New South Wales, 2250 to 2258 | Yes, Category 3 |
| Geelong, VIC | 3220 | Victoria, 3211 to 3232 | Yes, Category 2 |
| Surfers Paradise, QLD | 4217 | Queensland, 4207 to 4275 | Yes, Category 2 |
| Sydney CBD | 2000 | Not listed | No |
| Melbourne CBD | 3000 | Not listed | No |
| Brisbane CBD | 4000 | Not listed | No |
The Victorian rows show you how this works in practice. The bands run up to 3799, then stop and restart at 3809, which leaves postcodes 3800 to 3808 outside the designated regional areas. Officer at 3809 opens the 491. Beaconsfield at 3807 and Beaconsfield Upper at 3808 do not. These suburbs share borders with each other, and the postcode bands ignore that entirely.
Wollert surprises most people who check it. The suburb sits well inside Greater Melbourne, and postcode 3750 falls squarely inside the 3430 to 3799 band, so you can claim it as a designated regional area.
Parts of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Are Regional
The popular shorthand breaks down here. Several postcodes inside the three excluded cities appear on the regional list.
| Postcode | Area | Category | Sits inside |
| 4074 | Jindalee and Mount Ommaney | Category 2 | Brisbane City Council |
| 4019 to 4022 | Redcliffe and Clontarf | Category 2 | Greater Brisbane |
| 4303 to 4305 | Ipswich | Category 2 | Greater Brisbane |
| 2753, 2754 | Richmond and Hawkesbury area | Category 3 | Greater Sydney |
| 2756 to 2758 | Windsor and surrounds | Category 3 | Greater Sydney |
| 2773 to 2774 | Lower Blue Mountains | Category 3 | Greater Sydney |
| 3097 to 3099 | Outer north east Melbourne | Category 3 | Greater Melbourne |
| 3139 | Yarra Valley fringe | Category 3 | Greater Melbourne |
One detail in the New South Wales list deserves your attention. The band runs 2753, 2754, then jumps to 2756. Postcode 2755 appears nowhere in the instrument, so an address in 2755 falls outside the designated regional areas even though the postcodes on either side qualify.
Check your postcode rather than your city, and you avoid this problem entirely.
Designated Area and Designated Regional Area Are Not the Same
Two terms sit close together in Australian migration law, and the difference matters right now because the government changed one of them on 22 September 2026.
| Designated regional area | Designated area | |
| Instrument | LIN 22/022 | LIN 26/004 |
| Made under | Regulation 1.15M | Regulation 1.03 |
| Visa condition | 8579 | 8549 |
| Visas it applies to | 491, 494, 191, second 485 | 489 and 887 |
| Changed recently? | No. In force since 5 March 2022 | Yes. Commenced 22 September 2026 |
LIN 26/004 replaced IMMI 16/044, which was due to sunset on 1 October 2026. It matters if you hold an older Subclass 489 visa and you plan to apply for the Subclass 887, because condition 8549 asks you to live and work in a designated area.
It does not change the 491 in any way. Every postcode in the tables above still applies, and LIN 22/022 remains in force exactly as it was.
If you searched for designated areas this week and found news about a new instrument, that news covers the 489 and the 887 rather than your 491.
The Full 491 Regional Areas Postcode List for 2026
Both tables come from section 3 of LIN 22/022. You can read the full text of the instrument yourself on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Category 2: Cities and Major Regional Centres
| State or Territory | Postcodes |
| New South Wales | 2259, 2264 to 2308, 2500 to 2526, 2528 to 2535, 2574 |
| Victoria | 3211 to 3232, 3235, 3240, 3328, 3330 to 3333, 3340, 3342 |
| Queensland | 4019 to 4022, 4025, 4037, 4074, 4076 to 4078, 4207 to 4275, 4300, 4301, 4303 to 4305, 4500 to 4506, 4508 to 4512, 4514 to 4519, 4521, 4550, 4551, 4553 to 4562, 4564 to 4569, 4571 to 4575 |
| Western Australia | 6000 to 6038, 6050 to 6083, 6090 to 6182, 6208 to 6211, 6214, 6556 to 6558 |
| South Australia | 5000 to 5171, 5173, 5174, 5231 to 5235, 5240 to 5252, 5351, 5950 to 5960 |
| Tasmania | 7000, 7004 to 7026, 7030 to 7109, 7140 to 7151, 7170 to 7177 |
| Australian Capital Territory | All ACT postcodes |
Category 3: Regional Centres and Other Regional Areas
This table gives you the list of regional areas in NSW for 491 visa purposes, the list of regional areas in Victoria, and the equivalent for every other state and territory.
| State or Territory | Postcodes |
| New South Wales | 2250 to 2258, 2260 to 2263, 2311 to 2490, 2527, 2536 to 2551, 2575 to 2739, 2753, 2754, 2756 to 2758, 2773 to 2898 |
| Victoria | 3097 to 3099, 3139, 3233, 3234, 3236 to 3239, 3241 to 3325, 3329, 3334, 3341, 3345 to 3424, 3430 to 3799, 3809 to 3909, 3912 to 3971, 3978 to 3996 |
| Queensland | 4124, 4125, 4133, 4183, 4184, 4280 to 4287, 4306 to 4498, 4507, 4552, 4563, 4570, 4580 to 4895 |
| Western Australia | All WA postcodes not listed in Category 2 |
| South Australia | All SA postcodes not listed in Category 2 |
| Tasmania | All Tasmanian postcodes not listed in Category 2 |
| Northern Territory | All NT postcodes |
| Norfolk Island | All Norfolk Island postcodes |
| Other territories | All postcodes in territories other than the ACT, NT and Norfolk Island |
Three states keep this simple. Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania each treat anything outside Category 2 as Category 3, so every postcode in those states qualifies as a designated regional area. The same applies across the whole Northern Territory and the ACT.
| Wondering whether your occupation works in your area? A regional postcode passes the first test. The second test is whether a state will nominate your occupation there.
CTA: Discuss your occupation and location → /book-consultation |
Is Perth Regional for the 491 Visa? And the Other Capitals?
Yes to Perth, and yes to most of them. This table shows you where each capital sits.
| City | Category | Regional for the 491? |
| Perth | Category 2 | Yes |
| Adelaide | Category 2 | Yes |
| Canberra | Category 2 | Yes |
| Hobart | Category 2 | Yes |
| Darwin | Category 3 | Yes |
| Sydney | Not listed | No |
| Melbourne | Not listed | No |
| Brisbane | Mixed, some outer postcodes are Category 2 | Check your postcode |
Perth holds over two million people and Adelaide holds around 1.4 million. You are not choosing between a capital city and an outback town. You are choosing between three cities and everywhere else in the country.
Can I Move to Another Regional Area on a 491 Visa?
Yes. This ranks among the more generous parts of the visa.
You can move between designated regional areas freely. Condition 8579 asks you to live, work and study in a designated regional area rather than in one specific town or postcode. You can move from Adelaide to Geelong, or from Cairns to Perth, and stay compliant.
You can usually move interstate as well. The condition applies to designated regional areas rather than to the state that nominated you. Your nominating state did nominate you on the basis that you planned to settle there, so speak to an agent before you move states. Leaving early can change how a state views your commitment.
You cannot work in Sydney, Melbourne or central Brisbane. Taking a job in one of those areas breaches condition 8579, and your 191 application depends on staying compliant for the whole time you hold the visa.
Your obligation follows the areas designated when your visa was granted. If the instrument changes later, the areas that counted on your grant date keep counting for you.
Which Visas Use This Postcode List
Section 4 of LIN 22/022 sets out where the list applies, and it covers more than the 491.
- The Subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa
- A second Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate visa in the Post-Study Work stream
- Employer nominations, which is how the Subclass 494 works
- The Subclass 888 Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa
- The Subclass 892 State or Territory Sponsored Business Owner visa
- Grants of the older Subclass 489 Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa
If you hold a student visa and you are still choosing where to study, read this list closely. Studying in a Category 2 or Category 3 area unlocks the extra year on your 485 and the regional study points on your points score.
Category 2 or Category 3: Does It Change Anything?
Your 491 application treats them identically. Both count as designated regional areas, both carry the 15-point bonus through state nomination or family sponsorship, and both count toward the three years you need for the 191.
The categories only differ in study and graduate benefits, which are tiered so smaller centres offer more. If you plan to study in Australia first, check which category your campus falls into before you enrol.
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Book ConsultationHow to Check Your Own Address
One, find your exact postcode. Skip your suburb’s best-known postcode, and skip the one your employer prints on their letterhead. Use the postcode of the address where you will actually live and work.
Two, check it against both tables above. Read the bands carefully. A band written as 3809 to 3909 includes both end numbers and everything in between, while single numbers listed on their own include only themselves.
Three, confirm it against the instrument. The tables here come straight from LIN 22/022, and reading the source takes two minutes. Regulation 1.15M of the Migration Regulations 1994 gives the Minister the power to make it.
Four, check your workplace as well as your home. Both need to sit in a designated regional area, and they often carry different postcodes.
Five, check before you sign anything. A lease or a job offer in the wrong postcode costs a lot to fix, and this check costs you nothing.
| Do your home and work addresses sit in different postcodes, or does one of them sit on a band edge? Send us both and we can confirm where you stand.
CTA: Ask about your postcode → /contact-us |
Why the List Changed, and Where Old Numbers Come From
If you find a postcode list that does not match this one, the date usually explains it.
Before 16 November 2019, a different definition applied, and cities like Newcastle, Wollongong and the Gold Coast sat inside the excluded metropolitan zone. That version ended when the 491 replaced the old 489.
LIN 19/217 set the first postcode-based list under the current framework.
LIN 20/292 replaced it and introduced the two-category structure.
LIN 22/022 repealed LIN 20/292 and started on 5 March 2022. This instrument applies today.
Older blog posts and forum threads still circulate the earlier lists, so check the instrument rather than trusting any article about it.
What Happens After the Postcode Check
A regional postcode answers the first question rather than all of them. Three more decide whether the 491 works for you.
Will a state nominate your occupation? The 491 draws from the MLTSSL, the STSOL and the regional-only ROL, which gives it far wider coverage than the 189 or the 190. Check the Home Affairs skilled occupation list for your code.
Does a family sponsor give you a second route? Most 491 visas come through state nomination, and the rest run through an eligible relative living in a designated regional area.
Do your points reach 65? The regional bonus covers 15 of them, so you need 50 of your own.
Our 491 visa page works through all three, and the PR Pathway Roadmap shows you how the 491 connects to the 191 and beyond.
Bring Us Your Postcode and Your Occupation
A regional postcode opens the door. Your occupation and your state decide whether you walk through it.
Send us the address where you plan to live, the address where you plan to work, and your occupation. We can confirm your postcode position and tell you which states nominate your occupation right now.
CTA: Discuss your 491 options → /book-consultation
One question first? Send it to us (/contact-us) · The visa itself: 491 visa requirements (/visa-subclass-491) · How skilled migration fits together: General Skilled Migration (/general-skilled-migration) · Working in Australia (/work-in-australia) · The team: Our agents (/our-team)
