FAQs

To understand the general fire break allowance, you will need to know the size of your property.

If your property is greater than 4000m² Council acknowledges and allows for the ‘essential management’ exemptions for bushfire management purposes, as defined in Schedule 24 of the Planning Regulation 2017 (as amended). This means clearing vegetation:

• to establish or maintain a necessary firebreak to protect infrastructure where the  maximum width is equal to 1.5 times the height of the tallest vegetation next to the infrastructure, or 20m, whichever is the wider, or
• for establishing a necessary fire management line, where the maximum width of the clearing for the fire management line is 10m. 

Please note, this essential management provision only applies to a necessary firebreak. A suitably qualified person such as a Fire Warden or bushfire specialist can advise that a firebreak is necessary to protect the infrastructure from fire risks. 

These are the maximum limits. If the suitably qualified person advises that a small firebreak is necessary to protect the infrastructure from fire risks, then the width provided by the suitably qualified person should be implemented.

If your property is less than 4000m², the general firebreak allowance is:

• 10m to be established around a lawfully approved dwelling house (classes 1, 2 and 3, as defined by the National Construction Code)
• 3m from a lawful class 10 building
• 3m from a boundary fence line

The National Construction Code includes the Building Code of Australia (BCA) which groups buildings by their function and use and assigns these groups a classification.

A Class 1 building is a house or dwelling of a domestic nature. It includes single detached houses, as well as houses that are attached, like terrace houses, row houses or townhouses.

A Class 2 building is a residential apartment building, and it may include single-storey attached dwellings with a common space (like a carpark).

A Class 3 building is a residential building other than a Class 1 or 2 building, which is a common place for long-term or transient living by a number of unrelated persons, including a hostel or boarding house. It also includes care facilities, like accommodation buildings for children, the elderly, or people with disabilities. 

A Class 10 building is a non-habitable building or structure that may include a private garage, shed, or carport, a fence, a free-standing wall, a swimming pool, or a private bushfire shelter.

The Queensland Government has a mapping portal where you can access this information spp.dsdip.esriaustraliaonline.com.au/geoviewer/map/planmaking. 

Type your address into the menu bar at the top. Use the menu on the left side of the screen to select 'Safety and Resilience to Hazards' and then 'Natural Hazards Risk and Resilience'. Next, check the box for 'Bushfire Prone Area'. 

This will display whether any part of your property is mapped as having ‘very high’, ‘high’, or ‘medium potential bushfire intensity’, or as a ‘potential impact buffer’.

Council's recent decision will only apply to land mapped with very high, high, or medium potential bushfire intensity. Council has prepared a fact sheet based on the Queensland Government’s Vegetation clearing and fire management factsheet (www.qld.gov.au), with additional information for the Redlands Coast. 

Landholders are encouraged to use this fact sheet as a checklist to ensure that any clearing is consistent with the Council’s decision and the ‘essential management’ definition in the Queensland Government’s Planning Regulation 2017. 

Landholders should also use this to keep a record of their decision to undertake bushfire mitigation works.

Council has a dedicated webpage, Redlands Disaster Plan | disaster plan information for Redland City, that provides practical information on preparing for, responding to, and recovering from a disaster.

Links and attachments:

• Council report 16 October 2024
•  SPP mapping link
•  Approved methodology link
•  Bushfire Resilient Communities
•  Redlands Coast Disaster Plan Page