Why did aircraft noise suddenly get worse in my Brisbane suburb after 2020?

On 12 July 2020 Brisbane opened a new western parallel runway (01L/19R), roughly doubling capacity and redistributing flight paths over suburbs that had previously been near-silent. Inner-city and southern suburbs such as Hamilton, Ascot, Bulimba, Hawthorne, Morningside and Cannon Hill went from little overflight to frequent jets, and complaints to the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman surged into the hundreds. Drop a pin on the map above to see your street's current exposure.

Is Bulimba (or Hamilton, Ascot) loud from planes?

Yes — these inner riverside suburbs sit close to the runway centreline and are among the most affected by the new southern flight paths. When the airport runs in a southerly direction, departures climb out over the city directly above them. Hamilton, Ascot, Bulimba, Hawthorne, Morningside and Cannon Hill are repeatedly named in community and Ombudsman reporting. Use the pin-drop tool above to check a specific address.

What is SODPROPS and why does it matter for Brisbane?

SODPROPS stands for Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations. One runway departs over Moreton Bay while the other arrives over the bay (arrivals onto 19R, departures on 01R), keeping jets off the city. It is the preferred overnight mode but can only be used in light, calm conditions (visibility, cloud base and downwind limits must all be met). Airservices estimates each SODPROPS period spares 290,000 to 500,000 residents from being overflown, but it is unavailable in stronger winds.

Which Brisbane suburbs are quietest for aircraft noise?

Bayside suburbs east of the runway line, such as Wynnum and Manly, and northern suburbs near the bay-departure end, such as Sandgate and Shorncliffe, get the least overflight because they benefit from over-water operations. The most consistently affected are the inner-city and southern suburbs along the runway centreline. The map above lets you check any address.

How do the runways and wind direction decide who gets the noise?

Brisbane's two runways run almost exactly north-south, so one direction routes over Moreton Bay and the other over the city. Aircraft take off and land into the wind. In southerly winds the airport uses runways 19L/19R — arrivals approach from the north over the bay and departures climb out south over the city. In northerly winds it uses 01L/01R — arrivals come from the south over the city and departures head north over the bay. Whichever way the wind blows decides whether your suburb gets jets over the water or over your roof.

How do I report aircraft noise in Brisbane?

Submit complaints to Airservices Australia's Noise Complaints and Information Service (NCIS) at airservicesaustralia.com or by phone on 1800 802 584. Brisbane Airport itself does not run air traffic control — that is a federal Airservices Australia responsibility. Logging a complaint also feeds the data the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman uses when reviewing flight-path impacts.

Are there plans to reduce Brisbane Airport noise?

Yes. Airservices Australia's Noise Action Plan (from 2024) prioritises expanded use of over-the-bay SODPROPS operations, particularly overnight and on weekend mornings, to push more movements over water. Community groups continue to campaign for a legislated curfew via the stalled Curfew and Demand Management Bill, which the airport operator opposes. As of early 2026 there is no binding night curfew.

Brisbane Flight Path Noise Map – Brisbane Airport (BNE)

Name: Aircraft noise observations near Brisbane Airport
Creator: Flight Path Noise
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Aircraft noise around Brisbane in October 2026

Loudest neighborhoods near Brisbane: Pinkenba, Hamilton, Ascot, Bulimba, Hawthorne. Quietest: Wynnum / Manly, Sandgate / Shorncliffe. Busiest around 9 AM local time averaging 748 flights/day. Source: Flight Path Noise monitoring data, 30 days to 2026-10-08.

Flights by hour · last 30 days

12a6a12p6p

Average daily traffic

748

flights / day · 22,440 total

Busiest hour

9 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest hour

9 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest residential area

Pinkenba

72 dB avg · ~577 flights/day · Loud conversation

Immediately at the southern departure end of the runways; directly under low-altitude jet movements in over-city modes

Does Brisbane Airport have a curfew?

No — Brisbane has no formal curfew.

Brisbane Airport has no mandatory legislated curfew and operates 24 hours — unlike Sydney, which has a legally enforced 11 PM – 6 AM curfew. The only overnight protection is a voluntary preference (nominally 10 PM – 6 AM) to run quieter over-the-bay SODPROPS operations, but that only applies when winds are light and calm. In stronger winds, jets fly over the city at night. A Brisbane Airport Curfew and Demand Management Bill 2023 proposed a mandatory 10 PM – 6 AM curfew but has not been enacted.

Brisbane Airport (BNE/YBBN) sits on reclaimed land beside Moreton Bay, just north-east of the CBD, with two long parallel north-south runways — one pointing out over the water, the other directly over the city. The single defining fact of Brisbane’s noise story is the opening of the new western parallel runway (01L/19R) on 12 July 2020: overnight, suburbs that had enjoyed near-silence found themselves under busy new flight paths, and complaints to the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman surged into the hundreds. Unlike Sydney, Brisbane has no mandatory legislated curfew — the central grievance of community campaigners. Instead the airport and Airservices Australia rely on a voluntary preference for over-the-bay operations at night, which works only in calm winds. The geography is stark — which way the wind blows decides whether your suburb gets jets over Moreton Bay or directly over your roof.

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Brisbane runs two parallel north-south runways: the legacy/eastern 01R/19L (3,560 m, built in the late 1980s) and the new western parallel 01L/19R (3,300 m, opened July 2020 at a cost of about A$1.1 billion). The old cross-runway 14/32 was decommissioned during construction of the new runway. Because both runways are aligned almost exactly north-south, the impact splits cleanly: the northern half of operations routes over Moreton Bay, and the southern half routes over the inner-city and southern suburbs along the runway centreline.

Area	Aircraft noise	Why
Pinkenba	✈︎✈︎✈︎	At the southern departure end; low-altitude jets in over-city modes
Hamilton	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Riverside suburb near the centreline; heavily overflown since 2020
Ascot	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Went from quiet to frequent overflight after the new runway opened
Bulimba	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Directly under new southern flight paths; focus of the noise campaign
Hawthorne	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Same over-city corridor as Bulimba; major new jet noise
Morningside	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Named by the Ombudsman among most-impacted; under southern tracks
Cannon Hill	✈︎✈︎✈︎	One of the most affected suburbs feeding the parallel runways
New Farm	✈︎✈︎	Inner-city peninsula newly exposed in certain modes
Newstead	✈︎✈︎	Near the city corridor; affected in over-city modes
Seven Hills	✈︎✈︎	Under southern tracks, slightly off the densest corridor
East Brisbane / Woolloongabba	✈︎✈︎	Under new southern paths but higher altitude
Annerley	✈︎✈︎	Inner-south, newly under the flight path at greater distance
Wynnum / Manly	✈︎	Bayside, east of the runway line; off the city corridor
Sandgate / Shorncliffe	✈︎	North of the field; over-water routing keeps noise offshore

If aircraft noise is a primary concern, the practical move in Brisbane is the bayside east (Wynnum, Manly) or the northern bay suburbs (Sandgate, Shorncliffe) — both sit off the southern city corridor and benefit from over-water operations. The inner riverside arc from Hamilton and Ascot down through Bulimba, Hawthorne, Morningside and Cannon Hill is the most consistently affected; if you’re looking at houses or apartments there, drop a pin on the map above to see your specific street’s exposure.

Flight patterns and runway use

Brisbane’s runways run almost exactly north-south (magnetic ~010° and ~190°), so the airport is always operating in either a northerly or a southerly direction. Aircraft take off and land into the wind, and that single fact decides who gets the noise.

Southerly direction (winds from the south, more common in the cooler months): the airport uses runways 19L/19R. Arrivals approach from the north, descending over Moreton Bay, and departures climb out to the south over the city — worst for the inner-city and southern suburbs.
Northerly direction (winds from the north, more common in the warmer months): the airport uses runways 01L/01R. Arrivals come from the south over the city and departures head north over the bay.

So in both standard modes, one of arrivals or departures is over the city and the other is over the water — only the role flips with the wind. The exception is the overnight preferred mode, SODPROPS (Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations), where the two runways operate in opposite directions at once — arrivals onto 19R over the bay and departures on 01R over the bay — keeping jets off the city entirely. SODPROPS is nominally available 10 PM – 6 AM but only in light, calm conditions (good visibility, a high cloud base, dry runways and a downwind component under about 5 knots). When winds are stronger, SODPROPS is unavailable and over-city operations continue, day or night.

Airservices Australia’s Noise Action Plan (from 2024) prioritises expanding SODPROPS use, particularly overnight and on weekend mornings, to shift more movements over water; each SODPROPS period is estimated to spare 290,000 to 500,000 residents from being overflown. The route-density layer on the map above shows the pattern clearly — a bright corridor running south over the inner suburbs from the parallel runways, balanced by an over-bay corridor to the north.

When is it quietest?

Because Brisbane has no legislated curfew, there is no guaranteed silent overnight window the way there is in Sydney. The quietest periods are driven by traffic banks and by whether SODPROPS is running:

Overnight (10 PM – 6 AM): quietest when SODPROPS is active, because jets route over the bay rather than the city. But on windy nights SODPROPS drops out and over-city operations resume — this is the core of the community grievance.
Early morning (6 AM – 7 AM): the morning departure bank builds; if winds have shifted to a southerly, departures begin climbing out over the city.
Morning peak (7 AM – 9 AM): busiest departure period.
Midday: moderate and sustained.
Evening arrival bank (5 PM – 9 PM): heavy arrivals; in a southerly direction these approach over the bay, in a northerly direction over the city.

The biggest single variable is wind direction. A southerly change moving through mid-afternoon will flip the operation and suddenly put the inner-city suburbs under departure climb-out that was previously routing over the water. For your specific address, drop a pin on the map above to see the hourly profile.

How to check noise at your specific address

The map above answers the question “is this spot loud?” in three steps:

Search your address or postcode in the bar at the bottom of the map.
Drop a pin — click the location marker that appears.
Read the noise report in the sidebar: average daily noise (Leq), peak observed dB, flights per day passing within 2 km, and an hourly breakdown.

The Noise Heatmap layer (orange/red = louder) and the Route Density layer (purple/magenta = busier corridors) make Brisbane’s two-corridor pattern obvious — a southern band over the inner suburbs and a northern band over the bay. Because the operation flips with the wind, check both the daily average and the hourly breakdown rather than a single snapshot. Addresses on the bayside east or in the northern bay suburbs generally land in the quieter zone; those along the inner riverside centreline will not. If you want to formally report what you’re hearing, contact Airservices Australia’s Noise Complaints and Information Service on 1800 802 584.

Suburb & postcode noise guide

Suburbs overflown by Brisbane Airport traffic, ranked by this airport's share (rolling window to 2026-09-21). Each page shows the full picture across every airport and low-flying aircraft in the area.

Suburb	From Brisbane / day	All sources / day	Area rank
Murarrie (4172)	96	96	#1
Belmont (4153)	87	87	#2
Tingalpa (4173)	84	84	#3
East Brisbane (4169)	59	59	#4
Hawthorne (4171)	59	59	#5
Balmoral (4171)	59	59	#6
Hamilton (4007)	54	54	#7
Hemmant (4174)	53	53	#8
Woolloongabba (4102)	47	49	#9
Cannon Hill (4170)	45	45	#10
Morningside (4170)	40	40	#11
Norman Park (4170)	31	31	#12
Coorparoo (4151)	28	28	#13
Bulimba (4171)	25	25	#14
Ascot (4007, 4359)	21	21	#15
Camp Hill (4152)	20	20	#16
New Farm (4005)	20	20	#17
Seven Hills (4170)	19	19	#19
Highgate Hill (4101)	17	19	#18
Chermside (4032)	16	16	#20
Carindale (4152)	16	16	#21
Northgate (4013)	16	16	#22
Wavell Heights (4012)	16	16	#24
Kangaroo Point (4169)	14	14	#25
Greenslopes (4120)	14	14	#26
South Brisbane (4101)	13	16	#23
Aspley (4034)	12	14	#27
Chermside West (4032)	12	12	#28
Carina (4152)	10	10	#29
McDowall (4053)	8	8	#30

Frequently asked questions

Why did aircraft noise suddenly get worse in my Brisbane suburb after 2020?: On 12 July 2020 Brisbane opened a new western parallel runway (01L/19R), roughly doubling capacity and redistributing flight paths over suburbs that had previously been near-silent. Inner-city and southern suburbs such as Hamilton, Ascot, Bulimba, Hawthorne, Morningside and Cannon Hill went from little overflight to frequent jets, and complaints to the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman surged into the hundreds. Drop a pin on the map above to see your street's current exposure.
Is Bulimba (or Hamilton, Ascot) loud from planes?: Yes — these inner riverside suburbs sit close to the runway centreline and are among the most affected by the new southern flight paths. When the airport runs in a southerly direction, departures climb out over the city directly above them. Hamilton, Ascot, Bulimba, Hawthorne, Morningside and Cannon Hill are repeatedly named in community and Ombudsman reporting. Use the pin-drop tool above to check a specific address.
What is SODPROPS and why does it matter for Brisbane?: SODPROPS stands for Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations. One runway departs over Moreton Bay while the other arrives over the bay (arrivals onto 19R, departures on 01R), keeping jets off the city. It is the preferred overnight mode but can only be used in light, calm conditions (visibility, cloud base and downwind limits must all be met). Airservices estimates each SODPROPS period spares 290,000 to 500,000 residents from being overflown, but it is unavailable in stronger winds.
Which Brisbane suburbs are quietest for aircraft noise?: Bayside suburbs east of the runway line, such as Wynnum and Manly, and northern suburbs near the bay-departure end, such as Sandgate and Shorncliffe, get the least overflight because they benefit from over-water operations. The most consistently affected are the inner-city and southern suburbs along the runway centreline. The map above lets you check any address.
How do the runways and wind direction decide who gets the noise?: Brisbane's two runways run almost exactly north-south, so one direction routes over Moreton Bay and the other over the city. Aircraft take off and land into the wind. In southerly winds the airport uses runways 19L/19R — arrivals approach from the north over the bay and departures climb out south over the city. In northerly winds it uses 01L/01R — arrivals come from the south over the city and departures head north over the bay. Whichever way the wind blows decides whether your suburb gets jets over the water or over your roof.
How do I report aircraft noise in Brisbane?: Submit complaints to Airservices Australia's Noise Complaints and Information Service (NCIS) at airservicesaustralia.com or by phone on 1800 802 584. Brisbane Airport itself does not run air traffic control — that is a federal Airservices Australia responsibility. Logging a complaint also feeds the data the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman uses when reviewing flight-path impacts.
Are there plans to reduce Brisbane Airport noise?: Yes. Airservices Australia's Noise Action Plan (from 2024) prioritises expanded use of over-the-bay SODPROPS operations, particularly overnight and on weekend mornings, to push more movements over water. Community groups continue to campaign for a legislated curfew via the stalled Curfew and Demand Management Bill, which the airport operator opposes. As of early 2026 there is no binding night curfew.

Sources and further reading

Brisbane Airport — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
Understanding Runway Operations & Noise — Brisbane Airport Corporation
Investigation into complaints about the flight paths associated with the Brisbane Airport new parallel runway — Aircraft Noise Ombudsman (ANO)
Making a complaint — Airservices Australia
Brisbane Airport Curfew and Demand Management Bill 2023 — Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance (BFPCA)
Reducing airport noise for Brisbane residents — Australian Government, Minister for Infrastructure

Data updated 2026-10-08 — live ADS-B monitoring, rolling 30-day statistics (methodology). Article text revised 2026-05-30.

30 dB	Whisper
45 dB	Quiet residential
55 dB	Normal conversation
65 dB	Busy road
75 dB	Vacuum cleaner
85 dB	Heavy traffic
95 dB	Motorcycle nearby

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Brisbane Flight Path Noise Map – Brisbane Airport (BNE)

Aircraft noise around Brisbane in October 2026

Does Brisbane Airport have a curfew?

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Flight patterns and runway use

When is it quietest?

How to check noise at your specific address

Suburb & postcode noise guide

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

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