Councils across Australia manage 'unrateable' properties in a variety of ways - most common is to simply set parameters on the property as 'unrated', which effectively axcludes the property from being calculated during either the annual rates run or any ensuing supplementaries which occur during the year. These could be rail corridors, council parklands, hospitals and museums, child care centres - a whole gamut of different properties typically seen as for the benefit of the community as a whole.
Ah, but inside these methods hide a number of complexities. Just how much in rates is lost due to the unrateable status of these properties? Across Australia, few councils could give you a swift answer - except for South Australia.
In SA, (and to simplify it a bit for brevity) all properties are rateable. The ones described above are then given a rebate (could be 100%, could be mandated under the Act - could even be discretionary to council!), and council now has a tidy number describing just how much in rates those properties did not pay. Pretty nice - and actually worthy of investigation and adoption by other jurisdictions.