A private dwelling is a house, flat, unit, apartment, townhouse, or similar place set up for one household. Caravans and other movable homes also count when someone lives in them. The key test is that the dwelling is meant for one household alone.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines private dwellings in the Census. A dwelling counts as private even if no one lives there on Census night. What matters is the type of structure, not whether it is occupied.
Most dwellings in Australia are private. They are the base for housing analysis because occupancy rates and household sizes only apply to private dwellings.
Place Forecast splits all dwellings into private and non-private on the privacy page. Occupancy rates and structure rates only apply to private dwellings. The number of private dwellings feeds into the link between dwellings and population through household size.