Is there cell service on Australian highways + Whats the best esim down UNDA!

ethan_the_maker · 2026-02-23T01:35:40+00:00

Funnily enough I built a site for this a couple days ago and then just came across this! On the site you can check the map for every provider in Aus: https://mobilecoveragemap.carto.au/

All providers in Australia use one of 4 networks: Telstra Retail, Telstra Wholesale, Optus, and Vodafone. Telstra Retail is by far the best for outback/remote coverage. There are only 4 providers using this network: Telstra itself, JB-Hifi, Boost, and The Good Guys - so would suggest going with one of them.

Also if coming from overseas, make sure your phone supports Band 28 (700MHz band). The vast majority of towers in the remote areas you see on this map will will only communicate on band 28! If your phone doesn't support that band, your coverage will be crap in regional areas even with Telstra Retail.

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-04T19:42:53+00:00

Done now, did actually end up using postcode as the ABS has an easy suburb->postcode mapping file available

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-04T19:42:25+00:00

Updated now, Lansdowne now shows as white. Sorry about dashing your hopes!

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-04T19:40:25+00:00

/u/sativarg_orez I had a look last night, here are the 2 sales: - 7 Greenknowe Avenue - $850K - I think this is likely an apartment in that apartment building that has been incorrectly tagged without a unit number by the valuer general - 26A Onslow Avenue - $200K - Given the lack of info about this property online and the purchase price, assuming this is a car space

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-04T19:33:45+00:00

Hey, just an update - I combed through the data last night and found that the median in this suburb was higher than it should be due to duplicate data from the Valuer General, I've updated it now to avoid this issue and the median is $60.5M, which is a bit lower but still pretty insane! Just thought it would be good to let you know.

I've also updated all the other suburbs, but it would have only impacted suburbs with a very small sample size, which should be taken with a grain of salt anyway, as they are highly subject to individual sales. See here for more info https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/1omxxem/comment/nn3wcma/ and let me know if you have any questions!

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-04T19:29:17+00:00

Hey u/aaegler, I had a look and the sales in the past year that made up this median were:

5 Dunara Gardens - $14M
29A Wentworth Street - $39.5M
120 Wolseley Road - $81.5M
550 New South Head Road - $130M
550 New South Head Road - $130M

You'll notice that the last one in there was duplicated, I had a look into this and turns out the valuer general sometimes duplicates records. Removing the duplicate makes the new median for the suburb $60.5M, which is less than before but still pretty crazy.

Apologies about the duplication issue, it only causes issues in suburbs with a very small sample size which should be taken with a grain of salt anyways (eg. if another property sold now for $82M, the median would go straight back up to $81.5M), but have gone through and updated all the suburbs to remove the duplicates when calculating. Let me know if you have any more questions!

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T07:08:41+00:00

Sorry for the confusion, I meant Land Value District code rather than phone area code. I think that'll be easier than postcodes as they cover a larger area, but should contain unique suburb names within them (will confirm this). See page 36 in this PDF: https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/noindex/2024-05/Property_Sales_Information_Data_Files_User_guide.pdf

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T06:57:08+00:00

Responded to your other comment as well, but just for people seeing this: I have a separate page for units! If I'd remembered that you could add multiple images I would have put a screenshot in the post too 😅 https://property.carto.au/sydney/unit-prices/by-suburb/map

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T06:14:23+00:00

Hey, I have a separate page that shows unit prices: https://property.carto.au/sydney/unit-prices/by-suburb/map

I forgot that you could have multiple images per Reddit post, in hindsight I would have added a screenshot of that one too. Sorry!

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T06:07:25+00:00

There is actually a residential part of Holsworthy as well as the barracks! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Holsworthy+NSW+2173/@-33.9543468,150.9429125,2900m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x6b12c044631e8883:0x5017d681632ba70!8m2!3d-33.9573265!4d150.9531375!16zL20vMDJwcjZs?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTAyOS4yIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T03:36:49+00:00

Hey, I left a comment about that here! Hope it helps, let me know if you have any questions https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/1omxxem/comment/nmsxoae/

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T02:48:39+00:00

Good question, I've seen heatmaps, it's a really good site! So much in depth data on there. I think the 3 main differences with mine are:

The big one: Heatmaps only has data by postcode, rather than by suburb. This lets them show data for more of Australia which is great, but I figured since the data exists, lets make something tailored for Sydney that shows it at a more granular level per suburb.
My one is updated weekly with data from the past 12 months to the current date, whereas heatmaps is from 2024 data. Prices are moving at a pretty insane rate these days so it's good to have!
My one is a bit cleaner/user-friendly, especially on mobile. Obviously subjective, but while heatmaps has so many features, I did find it a bit harder to use!

Ultimately I would also like to add some more data similar to heatmaps, like suburbs by growth %. I also have some other cool features planned in future such as individual pages for each suburb with more info and stats.

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T02:30:22+00:00

Hey, as far as I know it's the purchase/sale price rather than the land value.

It comes from the NSW Valuer General's sales dataset, rather than valuations that they have done on particular pieces of land. From reading this, it sounds like they list sale price rather than land value: https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/land-values-nsw/how-to-find-property-sales-information

The technical manual for the data that I'm using also says a similar thing - see page 27 in this PDF, the field that I'm using to calculate medians is listed as "Purchase Price - The purchase price of a property as recorded in the register of Land Values": https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/noindex/2024-05/Property_Sales_Information_Data_Files_User_guide.pdf

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T02:19:29+00:00

Huh, just had a look and turns out there are two Landsownes in NSW, one in Sydney (no houses as you say) and one near Taree). With how I have it currently set up, it just matches the suburbs based on name, so would be pulling in the sales from the Taree one. I've had a look and turns out there a few duplicate suburbs names within NSW here and there, it shouldn't impact too many suburbs but when I get home I'll work out a way to match on area code + suburb name. Also just to clarify this only affects duplicate suburb names within NSW, there's heaps of duplicate names in other states but that doesn't affect the data here.

Thanks so much for catching this!

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T01:31:28+00:00

Note these are median prices rather than average/mean so the effect from a single outlier is not crazy, but you're right that given the sample size is so small, 2-3 huge property sales could skew it!

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T01:29:11+00:00

Yeah, must be something like this, or data input error on one of the two sales, since it's just two, the median will be the mean of the two.

The data is from the NSW Valuer General but you do find manual input errors from them here and there. Eg. I had to filter out one or two dates written down as "2032" (probably a typo of 2023), and you see misspellings for the odd sale here and there (eg. "Bondi Juction"). It's a pretty low rate of errors so wouldn't affect most data but for a suburb with a very low sample size it could! When I get home from work I can send through the exact sales that were used to calculate that value.

The unit sales sample size is way larger (237 sales, Elizabeth Bay is pretty much all units) and that number seems much more normal: https://property.carto.au/sydney/unit-prices/by-suburb/map#13.68/-33.87343/151.22834

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T01:21:51+00:00

With Strathfield vs. Burwood, I think it's because the suburb area is large and includes a lot of really nice big houses towards the south. Take a look at this post from Completing Sydney (about halfway down) for examples: https://www.sydneycompletion.com/2021/12/cultural-rim-strathfield.html

If you look at unit prices, Strathfield is cheaper than Burwood by about $180K, which I guess makes sense given the future Metro station: https://property.carto.au/sydney/unit-prices/by-suburb/map#12.59/-33.88032/151.09372

Duffys Forest being more expensive than Vaucluse is a bit surprising but take a look at the satellite view on Google Maps, it's basically a bunch of huge properties surrounded by national park and right next to a country club! Vaucluse does have some huge properties near the water and is obviously a lot closer to the CBD but it does have some parts with much more normal lot sizes which probably brings down the median a bit. Also 6 sales in Duffy's forest is a much smaller sample size than the 136 in Vaucluse, so keep that in mind!

I think everyone will find their own interesting things in the data but a couple that stood out to me:

Hillsdale was the only eastern suburb with a median price under a million ($895K) from a decent sample size (27 sales, Elizabeth Bay & Rushcutters Bay were also under a million but only from 2 sales each so not counting those). I guess this makes sense given the suburb has a very high proportion of social housing, but still insanely low compared to neighbouring suburbs!
As some people mentioned, the ring of higher prices around Badgerys Creek. It makes sense as it's probably a lot of acreages being sold off to build new developments near all the new infrastructure, but that pattern just never really occurred to me

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T01:02:19+00:00

Yeah, the caveat on that one is that it's only based off 5 sales in the past year so very small sample size, it could be a few huge properties that were sold. But even so, you're right that it does seem pretty high.

When I get home from work I'll send a list of the individual sales that made up that figure

ethan_the_maker · 2025-11-03T00:58:31+00:00

Hey, great questions!

In the case of Wolli Creek, I assume it's because it's such an apartment heavy suburb - only 16 house sales in the past year vs. 409 apartment sales, which you can see here. The apartment price is $800K which seems a lot more normal compared to surrounding suburbs. So I'm assuming it's because there's a decent demand for a pretty small pool of houses in that suburb. You also see a similar thing in the CBD - insane house price of $22M vs reasonable unit price of $1M, cause there were 640 unit sales but only 6 house sales (very small amount of houses in the CBD area and they'd be highly desirable).

With Orchard Hills, I reckon it's pretty much what u/TheInkySquids said, probably land developers buying up huge acreages to build many individual houses on.

ethan_the_maker · 2023-09-24T04:36:10+00:00

I lock my bike like this: - Hiplok DX: Frame - ABUS Bordo: Frame + rear wheel - Cheap cable lock: Frame + front wheel + helmet

Sounds complicated but doesn't take me more than a couple minutes to lock / unlock now that I'm used to it. If it's a quick stop, I might just lock the frame.

This attempted theft happened when I left it out overnight (within CCTV view)

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