Clearing trees for bushfire protection: what each state allows

The short answer

• Three states have permit-free clearing rules near homes: NSW (the 10/50 scheme), Victoria (the 10/30 rule) and South Australia (the 20 metre native vegetation exemption). Each only applies to certain areas or buildings.
• WA and the NT work the other way round: they require landholders to keep firebreaks and fuel down, and the council or fire agency sets what that means for your block.
• Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT have no blanket rule letting you remove trees around a house. Narrow exemptions exist (firebreaks, work required by a fire notice, approved hazard plans), but council tree controls usually still apply.
• No scheme covers someone else's land, overrides wildlife law, or makes it safe to fell a tree near a power line yourself.

State by state at a glance

“Bushfire prone area” and “overlay”: two different maps

Most of the confusion starts here. Many states have a bushfire prone area map, which is mainly a building map: it triggers construction standards when you build. Some also have a planning overlay for the highest-risk land, such as Victoria's Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO) or South Australia's Hazards (Bushfire) overlay. Clearing rules hang off these maps in different ways. In Victoria, for example, the 10 and 30 metre rules need a bushfire prone area, while the 50 metre version needs the BMO. So the first job in every state is to find out which maps cover your address.

New South Wales: the 10/50 scheme

Inside the NSW Rural Fire Service's mapped 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Entitlement Area, you can clear trees on your own land within 10 metres of a home, and underlying vegetation such as shrubs (but not trees) within 50 metres, without approval. It can even override a council Tree Preservation Order. It does not override development consent conditions, covenants or court orders, and slopes over 18 degrees and mapped environmental and heritage exclusions stop it. Check the RFS online tool on the day you clear and keep the result. We cover the full Code in our NSW 10/50 rule guide. Rural landholders should also look at the RFS Rural Boundary Clearing Code, which is a separate scheme for property boundaries.

Victoria: the 10/30 rule (and 10/50 in the BMO)

Victoria's exemptions are in clause 52.12 of every planning scheme. Around an existing building used for accommodation, you can do the following without a planning permit:

• Within 10 metres: remove, destroy or lop any vegetation, including trees.
• Within 30 metres: remove any vegetation except trees.
• Within 50 metres, if the building is in the BMO: remove any vegetation except trees.

The conditions are where most people go wrong:

• The building has to be old enough. For the 10 and 30 metre rules, it must be in a designated bushfire prone area and have been built before 10 September 2009, approved by a permit issued before that date, or built to replace a home lost in the bushfires of early 2009. The 50 metre BMO rule has its own date tests, including homes lawfully built without a planning permit before 18 November 2011.
• It beats most planning controls, but not agreements. The exemption applies to native and non-native vegetation and switches off other planning scheme controls, including native vegetation rules and overlays such as a Vegetation Protection Overlay. It does not override section 173 agreements or conservation covenants.
• Fence lines have their own rule. Along a boundary fence between properties in different ownership, built before 10 September 2009 in a bushfire prone area, you can clear a combined width of up to 4 metres across both sides. You need the neighbour's written permission to clear on their side.
• Some places differ. Planning Victoria notes that not all of the exemptions apply in the Yarra Ranges, because of a local clause, and that in Erosion Management Overlay areas landowners are advised to keep vegetation because of landslide risk.

To check your address, get a free planning property report from VicPlan. It shows your zone, your overlays (including the BMO) and whether you are in a bushfire prone area. Separately, every Victorian council has a Municipal Fire Prevention Officer who can serve a fire prevention notice requiring you to deal with a fire hazard on your land.

Queensland: state exemptions, council rules still apply

Queensland's state vegetation framework exempts a necessary firebreak to protect infrastructure (up to 20 metres wide, or 1.5 times the height of the tallest adjacent tree, whichever is greater) and a necessary fire management line up to 10 metres wide. The Queensland Government says the firebreak exemption does not cover fences, roads or tracks, that you cannot join clearing for several purposes to make a wider clearing, and that a permit from a local fire warden may be needed.

For a suburban house, the bigger issue is usually your council. The state names Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich and Redland as councils with tree and vegetation protection local laws, and those still apply. Brisbane City Council says clearing exempt under state rules may still need approval under its Natural Assets Local Law, and that clearing a firebreak needs a permit unless it is done under a direction from a fire warden or the fire service. Its factsheet does allow removing a tree without a permit if the whole trunk is within 3 metres of an existing, lawfully built and occupied home (6 metres on lots over 4,000 square metres), except significant landscape trees, which always need a permit. Sunshine Coast Council also lists necessary firebreaks to protect buildings among its exemptions, with conditions, so read your own council's page.

The Queensland Government's own bushfire garden advice is mostly about maintenance rather than removal: remove branches up to 1.5 metres above the ground, keep the understorey clear, keep grass short and replace combustible mulch.

Western Australia: your council's firebreak notice

In WA, local governments issue a firebreak notice (sometimes called a fire hazard reduction notice) each year under section 33 of the Bush Fires Act 1954. It is a legal requirement, not an option, and it varies by council. Three examples:

• City of Kalamunda requires a 20 metre fuel-reduced zone measured from the outermost point of buildings, and 3 metre firebreaks on larger lots, in place by 1 November and maintained through to 31 March.
• City of Wanneroo requires firebreaks by 1 November, maintained to 30 April, strongly recommends a 20 metre asset protection zone and says a fire control officer may require one. It can fine non-compliance and do the work at the owner's cost.
• Shire of Mundaring requires its measures in place before 1 November each year and maintained to 31 March, with firebreaks at least 3 metres wide and 4 metres high.

Under Schedule 6 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986, clearing done to comply with a section 33 notice does not need a native vegetation clearing permit. That covers what the notice requires, such as its firebreaks and any 20 metre zone around a building, and no more. Note that a “low-fuel zone” is about fuel on the ground and continuity of vegetation, not necessarily removing every tree. DFES describes an asset protection zone as a low-fuel area immediately surrounding a building. Read your council's notice for what it actually requires on your size of lot. Our WA firebreak notice guide lists this season's due dates for 18 councils.

South Australia: the 20 metre rule, with a big-tree catch

Under the Native Vegetation Regulations 2017, the Department for Environment and Water says you can clear native vegetation within 20 metres of a dwelling without Native Vegetation Council or CFS approval, and clear a fence-line fuel break no more than 5 metres wide. The catch is large trees: a tree with a trunk circumference over 2 metres (the CFS measures it 1 metre above the ground) needs CFS approval to clear within 20 metres of a dwelling. Any approved bushfire management plan for your land also has to be followed.

That is the native vegetation layer. Separately, SA protects regulated (1 metre trunk circumference or more) and significant (2 metres or more) trees under planning law. The City of Marion and the SA Law Handbook both describe an exemption for these trees within 20 metres of an existing dwelling in a Medium or High Bushfire Risk area in the Hazards (Bushfire) overlay. The CFS also notes that council approval may still be needed for trees protected under development law, and planning rules are reviewed from time to time, so confirm the current position with your council or PlanSA before relying on it. Our SA tree removal laws page explains the regulated and significant tree rules in full.

Tasmania: narrow exemptions, no distance rule

Tasmania has no Victorian-style distance rule for existing homes. Instead, the State Planning Provisions (clause 4.4) exempt vegetation removal from needing a permit in a set of safety cases, including:

• clearance within 2 metres of lawfully constructed buildings or infrastructure;
• fire hazard reduction required under the Fire Service Act 1979 or by a council abatement notice;
• fire hazard management under a bushfire hazard management plan approved as part of a development, or works under a plan endorsed by the Tasmania Fire Service, the council or another listed agency;
• vegetation that poses an unacceptable risk to safety or threatens a substantial structure.

The Tasmania Fire Service says owners and occupiers must not let fire hazards become fire risks, and it can issue a notice requiring a hazard to be removed. If you are clearing a larger area on a rural block, also check the Forest Practices Regulations 2017, which can require a forest practices plan for clearing of one hectare or more (or 100 tonnes or more a year), and on vulnerable land such as steep slopes and streamside reserves.

ACT: approval still needed

The ACT has no general exemption for residents to remove protected trees for bushfire protection. Under the Urban Forest Act 2023, a tree on leased land is regulated if it is 8 metres or taller, has a canopy 8 metres or wider, or has a trunk circumference of 1 metre or more at 1.4 metres above ground, and removing it needs approval. If a tree is an urgent safety risk, ACT City Services says to call Access Canberra on 13 22 81 and ask for an urgent circumstances authorisation, followed by a tree activity application. Rural lessees and some landholders may have obligations under a bushfire operational plan, and close to a quarter of ACT homes are in the mapped Bushfire Prone Area, which you can check in ACTmapi.

Northern Territory: firebreaks by 1 June

The NT Government says landholders must install firebreaks at least 4 metres wide around the property perimeter and around houses and other permanent structures, with no vegetation over 50mm, by 1 June each year. It also requires a 15 metre buffer free of gamba grass, and failing to install and maintain firebreaks can lead to a fine. Bushfires NT covers fire management zones outside towns, and the NT Fire and Rescue Service covers emergency response areas, which include the major towns. On freehold unzoned land you need a permit to clear native vegetation if the total cleared area will be more than one hectare.

What no bushfire rule lets you do

• Clear land you do not own. Neighbours' land, roadsides, parks and reserves need the owner's or manager's permission. Report a worrying public tree to the council instead. See council trees on or near your property.
• Ignore wildlife and federal law. A planning exemption is not an approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and it does not excuse harm to protected animals. Check hollows and nests first.
• Override agreements and consent conditions. Covenants, section 173 agreements in Victoria and development consent conditions in NSW survive the exemptions.
• Work near power lines. Trees near the lines need an accredited operator, whatever the planning rule says. See trees and powerlines.
• Burn the green waste. Clearing exemptions are not burning permits. Fire permits and fire danger period restrictions are a separate system.

Defendable space is not the same as clear-felling

Fire agencies are generally asking for managed vegetation, not bare ground. The CFA's standard defendable space conditions in the BMO are a good picture of what that looks like: grass kept short, leaves and debris removed in the fire danger period, no shrubs under tree canopies, tree canopies at least 5 metres apart, at least 2 metres between the lowest branches and the ground, and no trees overhanging or touching the building. Often that means pruning, lifting and thinning rather than removing every tree, and an arborist can tell you which approach suits each tree. If a tree is already dead or unstable, a separate exemption may apply: see removing a dead or dangerous tree.

Before you start: a checklist

1. Find out which bushfire maps and overlays cover your address (RFS tool, VicPlan, ACTmapi, or your council).
2. Read your state's rule in full, including the building date tests and exclusions.
3. Check your council's tree controls, heritage listings and any covenant on your title.
4. In WA, read this season's firebreak notice for your council and note the due date.
5. Measure from the right point (the external wall, or the outermost point of the building, depending on the rule).
6. Keep evidence: the map or tool result, photos, and any written advice from council.
7. Have trees checked for wildlife, and keep anyone unaccredited away from trees near power lines.

Not sure where your address stands? Our permit checker gives you a council-specific starting point, and our is my tree protected? guide walks through the other controls that can apply.