Road-related Revenue and Expenditure
Chapter 3
This chapter provides information on the Government's total expenditures and sources of revenue for road-related activities for the Commonwealth, state and local Government (noting only expenditure is shown at the local level). A general overview for the Commonwealth is presented first, before expenditures (Table 3.1) and revenues (Table 3.2) are broken down at state/territory level. A variety of sources are used for this data, including data from the Australian Tax Office, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, the Commonwealth Budget, BITRE estimates and State and Territory Governments. For a more detailed breakdown, please refer to the endnotes for Chaptere 3.
- The public sector (National, state and local) spent $39 billion in roads in 2022–23.
- $31 billion in road-related revenue was collected (excluding road-related revenue from the Goods and Services Tax, Fringe Benefits Tax and the Luxury Car Tax).
Public sector road-related expenditure over time can be seen in Figuree 6.
Figure 6 Road-related expenditure, by level of government (constant 2022–23 prices, adjusted by CPI)
Figure 7 shows selected road-related revenues
Figure 7 Selected road-related revenues
Figure 8 illustrates that the majority of revenue for the states/territories is vehicle registration fees.
Figure 8 State and Territory Government Road-related revenues (excluding tolls)
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- Road-related Revenue and Expenditure—Yearbook 2024 (234 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
Also see
Freight chapter - Yearbook 2024
Chapter 4
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- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
- Freight—Yearbook 2024 (146 KB) - Download Excel file
Freight transport activity (Figures 9 and 10) is measured in terms of tonne kilometres (the number of tonnes moved by a vehicle multiplied by the distance the load travelled in kilometres). The Australian domestic freight task has experienced strong growth over the last 40 years, with road and rail freight now dominating domestic freight activity.
- Melbourne had the most metropolitan road freight estimated at 17.8 billion tonne-kilometres in 2023–24.
- NSW's estimated road freight for 2023–24 was the highest on record at 86 billion tonne-kilometres.
Figure 9 shows a map of Australia's major domestic freight flows by transport mode. Line and arrow thickness indicate the volume of freight carried on each route, not the value of freight or performance of supply chains. The map shows that the highest volume domestic freight route is iron ore transported by rail in the Pilbara region. This next largest individual flow is coal carried by rail in Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley, followed by bauxite shipped from Weipa and Gove to Gladstone.
Figure 9 Australia's Freight Flows Map
Figure 10 Australian domestic freight task, by mode of transport
The Australian domestic freight task (Figure 2) has experienced strong growth over the last 40 years, with road and rail freight now dominating domestic freight activity.
Also see
Chapter 5
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
- Passengers—Yearbook 2024 (195 KB) - Download Excel file
This chapter provides information on passenger transport activity, including nationally, by city pair, by capital city and by method of travel to work. The data in this chapter comes from a variety of sources, being from BITRE's estimates, the ABS' Census Basic Community Profiles Series and from Tourism Research Australia.
- 163 billion passenger kilometres were travelled by car on capital city roads in 2023–24, returning to pre COVID pandemic levels of 2018–19.
- 15 billion passenger kilometres were travelled on heavy rail networks in 2023–24.
- 18 billion passenger kilometres were travelled on heavy rail in 2018–19, prior to any COVID impacts.
Passenger transport activity (Figure 11) is measured by passenger kilometres (the number of kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles multiplied by the number of occupants in the vehicle).
Figure 11 Total national motorised passenger travel, by transport mode
The Australian domestic passenger task is dominated by road transport, mainly passenger cars (Figure 12, right axis). Passenger travel on other modes has generally been increasing, albeit with a dip over the pandemic period. Air travel expectedly fell most significantly, however in 2023–24 it had recovered to near its pre-pandemic level.
Figure 12 Australian domestic passenger task, by mode of transport
Chapter 6
This chapter provides the following information on Australian roads: road distances, road length in kilometres, licence registration transactions over different vehicle types, electric vehicles attributes and registration transactions.
A variety of sources are used for this data, including data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), VFACTS, BITRE estimates and State and Territory Governments.
- Australia's total estimated paved road length was 463,000 kilometres in 2023.
- An estimated 260 billion vehicle kilometres were travelled on Australia's roads in 2023–24.
- In 2023–24, Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) comprised 56% of new motor vehicle sales (excluding motor cycles) compared with only 30% 10 years earlier.
- In 2023, there were 87 thousand fully electric vehicle sales in Australia, up from 33 thousand the previous year.
Figure 13 shows the sale of registered battery electric vehicles and Plug-in Hybrids over time. Fully battery electric vehicles sales increased by 161 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
Figure 14 shows Australia's national road network.
Figure 13 Sales of electric vehicles
Figure 14 Map of national road network
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- Road—Yearbook 2024 (XLSX 291 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
Also see
Chapter 7
Chapter 7 aims to give an understanding of Australia's rail characteristics. This chapter provides information on rail lengths, rail interstate non-bulk freight, public transit patronage on rail and rail related expenditure. The data is sourced mainly from BITRE and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- People in Melbourne use light rail more than any other city with 148 million passengers in 2022–23.
- People in Sydney use heavy rail more than any other city with 271 million passengers in 2022–23.
- In 2022–23 there were 35 billion dollars of public rail-related expenditure.
Figure 15 shows Australia's network of railways by gauge, breaking it down into different classifications. The lines shown here are the railways that were open for traffic at October 2022. The only change since 2021 was the opening of the Forrestfield-Airport Link (Metronet) line in Perth.
Figure 15 Australia's railways, by gauge
Figure 16 shows rail public transport patronage by million passenger movements. Passenger movements were trending upwards in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide before starting to fall sharply in 2019–20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Melbourne's passenger numbers began to recover in 2021–22, Sydney's continued to decline rapidly, recording a larger proportional fall than in each of the two preceding years. This refers to all trips on suburban rail networks and is based on reporting from train operators.
Figure 16 Public transit patronage on heavy rail, Australian capital cities
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- Rail—Yearbook 2024 (105 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
Also see
Chapter 8
This chapter provides data on airline activity, aircraft numbers, on time performance and airfare price indexes. Information is provided for both international and domestic airlines, as well as a breakdown of airport traffic by state.
- 616 thousand Australian domestic flights occurred in 2023–24. As with internal activity, the full recovery of the aviation industry to pre COVID levels has not yet occurred. At the height of the pandemic, domestic flights fell to 327 thousand, fewer than flight numbers in 1977–78.
- Sydney had the highest number of aircraft movements with 300 thousand in 2023–24.
- 11 832 Piston aircraft were registered as of 31 December 2023 which is 812 more than the year before. The number of helicopters registered increased from 2 351 to 2 593 over the same period.
- International flights from Australia are steadily recovering from the impacts of COVID. In 2023‑24 there were 196 thousand flights, up from only 45 thousand three years earlier.
Figure 17 shows Australia's top 40 airports by domestic and international passenger movements. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are the airports which experienced the most activity, with some regional airports outside of the top 30 entering and exiting the list.
Figure 17 Australia's top 40 airports in 2023–24, passengers
Figure 18 shows international and domestic revenue passengers. Since the early 80s, the number of fare-paying passengers, uplifted and discharged in Australia, was steadily increasing both domestically and internationally, before a sharp drop beginning in 2019–20. 2023–24 activity shows a strong trajectory to return to pre-COVID pandemic record highs in the coming years.
Figure 18 International and domestic airline revenue passengers
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- Aviation—Yearbook 2024 (135.22 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
Also see
Chapter 9: shipping
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- Shipping—Yearbook 2024 (136 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
This chapter provides information on Australian ships, cargo, ports and fleet including mileage, tonnage and number of vessels. The data is sourced from BITRE's Australian Sea Freight publication, BITRE's Waterline publication and BITRE estimates based on Lloyds List Intelligence Data.
- There were 53 Australian registered vessels in the Australian trading fleet, including small vessels, and 83 overseas registered vessels in 2022–23.
- Queensland had the largest discharged volume with 40 million tonnes in 2020–21. Following Queensland was New South Wales and Victoria with 33 million tonnes discharged each.
- Western Australian ports loaded 1 billion tonnes of maritime cargo in 2020–21, the largest volume in Australia. Next, Queensland and New South Wales loaded 289 million tonnes and 176 million tonnes respectively. Together the ports in these 3 states loaded 94% of Australia's maritime cargo by volume in 2020–21.
- 8.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) were exchanged at container terminals in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle and Adelaide in 2022–23.
Figure 19 Principal Australian ports, by commodity
Figure 20 provides a state breakdown of the number of cargo ships on coastal or international voyages that made port calls from 1999-00 to 2022-23. The majority of states saw increases during this time period. Queensland and Western Australia experienced the largest numerical increases and were consistently Australia's 2 most-visited states by cargo ships.
Figure 20 Number of cargo ships involved in coastal or international voyages that made port calls, by state/territory
Also see
Chapter 10
This chapter provides data on Australian safety for road, aviation, rail and maritime transport. This includes data relating to crashes, fatalities, injuries and their rates of occurrence, as well as how this can differ for different demographics, states and territories (subject to data availability).
- In 2023, 1 258 people died in road crashes in Australia, down from 1 737 in 2001.
- 33 aviation fatalities occurred in Australia in 2023.
- Road crashes caused 40 000 people in Australia to be with hospitalized injuries in 2021 up from 27 000 in 2001.
- On Australia's railways, 15 people died and 63 were seriously injured in 2023 (excludes suspected suicide).
Figure 21 shows the number of fatal crashes over time (with road crashes on the left axis and marine and aviation crashes on the right axis). The average number of fatal road crashes (the number of crashes or accidents which resulted in at least one death) from 2010 to 2023 is 1109. In 2023 there was 1149 fatal road crashes. Fatal aviation crashes have remained between 14 and 23 since 2016. Marine fatal crashes have remained between 2 and 6 from 2010 to 2023.
Figure 21 Number of fatal crashes, by transport mode
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- Transport Safety—Yearbook 2024 (178 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
Also see
Transport Energy and Environment
Chapter 11
This chapter provides information on the Australian measures of transport energy and the environment. Data is sourced from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water's petroleum statistics and BITRE estimates.
- Road vehicles made up 84 percent of full fuel cycle greenhouse gas emissions from all domestic transport modes in 2023–24, compared to 9 per cent from aviation.
- The national average price for petrol was 196 cents per litre in the 2023–24 financial year.
- In 2023–24, domestic road vehicle full fuel cycle greenhouse gas emissions estimates (carbon dioxide equivalent) reached a record high level of 108 000 gigagrams of CO2 equivalent.
- In 2023–24, there was an estimated 58 billion litres of transport petroleum sold in Australia.
Figure 22 shows full fuel cycle greenhouse gas emissions by transport mode in gigagrams of CO2 equivalent. Transport emissions in Australia have risen steadily since 1974–75, except over the COVID-19 pandemic period, which saw them dip temporarily for road vehicles and domestic aviation. Domestic aviation emissions were most affected, almost halving from 11 116 gigagrams of CO2 equivalent in 2018–19 to 5 955 gigagrams of CO2 equivalent in 2020–21, while road vehicle emissions fell by roughly 3 per cent over the same period.
Figure 22 Transport full fuel cycle greenhouse gas emissions
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- Transport Energy and Environment—Yearbook 2024 (161 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics—Yearbook 2024 - Download PDF
Also see
Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics Yearbook 2025: freight chapter
Chapter 1: Freight
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics Yearbook 2025 - Download full report PDF
- Freight—Yearbook 2025 (128 KB) - Download Excel file
Freight transport activity (Figures 1 and 2) is measured in terms of tonne kilometres (the number of tonnes moved by a vehicle multiplied by the distance the load travelled in kilometres). The Australian domestic freight task has experienced strong growth over the last 40 years, with road and rail freight now dominating domestic freight activity.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the total bulk and non-bulk freight task fell slightly, from 780 billion tonne kilometres in 2018–19 to 760 billion tonne kilometres in 2020–21. It has grown over the last three years and is estimated to have reached its highest point in 2024–25 at 786 billion tonne kilometres.
- Melbourne had the most metropolitan road freight estimated at 18.2 billion tonne kilometres in 2024–25.
- NSW’s estimated road freight for 2024–25 was the highest on record at 87.6 billion tonne kilometres.
Figure 1 shows a map of Australia's major domestic freight flows by transport mode (based on 2023–24 figures). Line and arrow thickness indicate the volume of freight carried on each route, not the value of freight or performance of supply chains. The map shows that the highest volume domestic freight route is iron ore transported by rail in the Pilbara region. This next largest individual flow is coal carried by rail in Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley, followed by bauxite shipped from Weipa and Gove to Gladstone.
Figure 1 Australian Freight Flows Map
Sources:
ABARES (2024), Agricultural Commodity Statistics, March 2024, ABARES, Canberra.
ABS (2002), Freight Movements, Australia, Summary, Mar 2001 (Reissue), Catalogue no. 9220.0, ABS, Canberra.
ABS (2015), Freight Movements Australia, 12 Months ended 31 October 2014, Catalogue no. 9223.0, ABS, Canberra.
BITRE (2022), Australia interstate, intrastate and capital city road freight forecasts - 2022 update, Research Report 155, BITRE, Canberra.
BITRE (2023), Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics Yearbook 2023, BITRE, Canberra.
BITRE (2024), BITRE estimates, BITRE, Canberra.
BITRE, Australian Sea Freight 2023–24, Statistical Report, BITRE, Canberra ACT.
DISER (2024), Resources and Energy Quarterly, December 2023, Office of the Chief Economist, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Canberra.
DITRDCA (2024), Coastal Trading Licensing System (unpublished data), Canberra ACT.
NFDH (2024), Freight Train Movement Data from ARTC, National Freight Data Hub, Canberra.
Qld DoR (2024), Coal production data, September 2023, Queensland Department of Resources, Brisbane.
Figure 2 illustrates Australian domestic freight activity by transport mode from 1974–75 to 2024–25. The chart indicates that rail and road account for the majority of domestic freight movement. In 2024–25, rail transported approximately 447 billion tonne kilometres of freight, while road accounted for approximately 253 billion tonne kilometres.
Figure 2 Australian domestic freight task, by mode of transport
Source: BITRE Estimates