Regulated and significant trees in South Australia: is yours protected, and how do you remove one?

The short answer

• The rules only apply inside the Regulated and Significant Tree Overlay. You can check whether your land is in it for free (see below).
• Regulated tree: trunk circumference of 1 metre or more, measured 1 metre above the ground. Significant tree: 2 metres or more, or individually listed in the Code.
• Removing, killing, lopping, topping or substantially damaging either kind needs development approval, lodged through the PlanSA portal.
• Common exclusions: trees within 3 metres of your house or in-ground pool (but never gums, Angophora, Corymbia or Willow Myrtle), dead trees, and 24 exempt species such as camphor laurel and most figs.
• If approval is given, you plant 2 replacement trees (3 for a significant tree) or pay instead, currently $533 per tree not planted.

Is my tree regulated or significant? The size test

The test is in regulation 3F of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) Regulations 2017. Wrap a tape measure around the trunk 1 metre above natural ground level and compare it with this table.

For a tree with several trunks, measure each trunk separately at 1 metre and add the figures together. The regulation says to use each trunk's actual circumference without counting the gaps between them. Then divide by the number of trunks to get the average.

The 2024 change matters more than it looks. Halving the regulated threshold from 2 metres to 1 metre brought many more ordinary backyard trees into the rules, so a tree that was fine to remove a few years ago may need approval today. If a neighbour, a contractor or an older web page tells you the limit is 2 metres, they are using the old rule.

Where the rules apply, and how to check your address

Size alone does not make a tree regulated. The tree also has to be in the Regulated and Significant Tree Overlay of the Planning and Design Code. PlanSA describes the overlay as covering metropolitan Adelaide and townships in the Adelaide Hills Council and parts of the Mount Barker Council. Outside it, the size test does not apply, although other rules can (native vegetation law in rural areas, a heritage listing, or a development consent condition, for example).

Two free ways to check:

• The SA Property and Planning Atlas (SAPPA): search your address and expand the Planning and Design Code layers to see the overlays on your land.
• A property search on the Planning and Design Code website, which lists every zone and overlay that applies to an address.

Our permit checker will also point you to your council's rules. A state government amendment is being prepared that would extend the overlay to more townships in Greater Adelaide (see “What might change” below), so check again if you are on the fringe.

Trees that are excluded even if they pass the size test

Within 3 metres of your house or pool

A tree within 3 metres of an existing dwelling or an existing in-ground swimming pool on the same allotment is not regulated or significant on size. The distance is measured at natural ground level from the base of the nearest trunk to the nearest part of the dwelling or pool. Two details catch people out:

• It does not cover gums and their relatives. Any Eucalyptus, Corymbia or Angophora, and Willow Myrtle (Agonis flexuosa), stays protected however close it is to the house.
• It used to be 10 metres. The distance dropped from 10 to 3 metres on 16 May 2024, and since 7 November 2025 the house or pool must be on the same allotment as the tree. A neighbour's house does not count.

Exempt species

The Minister publishes a list of species that are never regulated or significant. The notice dated 28 April 2026 lists 24 species, including box elder, camphor laurel, London plane, weeping willow and most figs. The fig exemption has an exception: a Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla) more than 15 metres from a dwelling stays protected. The list changes from time to time (it was reissued in January and again in April 2026), so check the current notice on PlanSA rather than relying on a list a contractor gives you. Our guides to camphor laurel and fig tree removal cover those species in more detail.

Other exclusions

• Dead trees. Work on a dead tree is not development, so no approval is needed (see the next section).
• Bushfire areas. A tree within 20 metres of a dwelling in a Medium or High Bushfire Risk area of the Hazards (Bushfire Protection) Overlay. Native vegetation rules still apply separately; our bushfire clearing guide explains the SA layers.
• Declared plants under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019, and trees in woodlots, orchards and plantations.
• Trees that need Native Vegetation Council consent instead, which are dealt with under native vegetation law.

Trees listed by name in the Code

Part 10 of the Planning and Design Code lists individual significant trees in the Adelaide, Burnside, Prospect and Unley council areas. A listed tree is significant whatever its trunk size. The size-based exclusions above are written around the size test, so do not assume the 3 metre rule or a species list helps with a listed tree. Ask the council first.

Dead, dangerous and urgent trees

Dead: PlanSA says that if a regulated or significant tree is dead, you can remove it without approval. Dead means dead, not “in decline”. Photograph the tree from several angles with the date before it is cut, so you can show your council if a neighbour reports it.

Dying, leaning or dropping limbs: these are not exclusions. A tree that is a risk is a strong reason for approval, and the Code lists an unacceptable risk from limb drop as a ground for removal, but you still have to apply.

Genuinely urgent: section 136 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 allows work done as a matter of urgency to protect a person or a building, such as a split trunk over the house after a storm. If you rely on it:

1. Notify your council by phone or email (the regulations require this).
2. Do only the minimum work needed to make it safe.
3. Lodge an application for approval within 28 days.

Some summaries say you have 28 days to notify the council. The regulation puts the 28 days on the application, so tell the council straight away. For what to do in the first hours, see a tree fell in a storm: what to do.

What needs approval, including pruning

The Act calls it tree-damaging activity. It covers killing or destroying a tree, removing it, severing branches, limbs, stems or the trunk, ringbarking, topping or lopping, and any other substantial damage, plus anything that causes those things. On a regulated or significant tree, each of these is development and needs approval.

Maintenance pruning is excluded only when all three of these are true:

• it removes no more than 30 per cent of the crown;
• it is needed to remove dead or diseased wood, or branches that are a material risk to a building or to people in an area in frequent use; and
• for a privately owned tree, it is at least 5 years after the last pruning done under this exclusion.

That last condition is easy to miss, so keep the invoice from every pruning job. If a quote describes the work as “lopping” or “topping”, that is tree-damaging activity, not maintenance pruning. Our lopping vs pruning guide explains the difference. Building, excavating or filling near a regulated tree's roots is also assessed when you apply to build, so raise any big tree early in a renovation.

How to get approval

1. Confirm the tree is caught. Check the overlay, measure the trunk, and check the exclusions above.
2. Talk to your council. PlanSA's advice is to contact your local council before carrying out any work.
3. Lodge a development application on the PlanSA portal. Fees apply. They are set by the state fees notice and depend on the application, so the portal calculates yours.
4. Provide evidence if asked. The Act says the authority should try to assess an application without asking for an expert or technical report unless there are special circumstances. If your council does ask for an arborist report, the author must hold at least a Diploma in Arboriculture (the AQF Level 5 qualification). See how to get an arborist report.
5. Wait for the decision, then plant or pay. Only start work once you have the approval and know its conditions.

What councils assess

The overlay sets out when removal is appropriate. In summary, a regulated tree can be removed where it is diseased with a short life expectancy, poses an unacceptable risk to safety from limb drop, is causing or threatening extensive damage to a heritage place or a substantial building and there is no reasonable alternative, or is a bushfire hazard within 20 metres of a habitable building. For a significant tree, you generally also need to show that all reasonable remedial treatments (such as pruning, bracing or a root barrier) have been tried or considered and would not work. Leaf litter, shade or a tree being “too big” are not among the listed grounds.

If the tree is your neighbour's

You can apply about a tree on a neighbour's land, for example to deal with the part that overhangs or damages your property. The owner is notified and has 10 business days to comment. Your separate common-law rights over overhanging branches are covered in our overhanging tree guide, but on a regulated tree, cutting more than maintenance pruning still needs approval.

Replacement trees, or the payment instead

When removal of a regulated or significant tree is approved, the regulations require replacement planting:

• 2 trees to replace a regulated tree;
• 3 trees to replace a significant tree.

Replacement trees cannot be an exempt species and cannot be planted within 3 metres of a dwelling or in-ground pool. Councils add their own expectations: the City of Onkaparinga, for example, says fruit trees are not accepted as replacements.

If you do not plant them, you can pay into the council's urban trees fund instead. The state fees notice in force from 1 July 2026 sets $533 for each replacement tree that is not planted. That works out at $1,066 for a regulated tree and $1,599 for a significant tree. The amount is indexed each financial year, so check the current fees notice if you are reading this after June 2027.

Street trees and council trees

A tree on the verge or in a park belongs to the council and has its own process. Development approval for your project does not give you permission to touch a street tree: the City of Unley says so in those words, and the City of Burnside notes that council trees outside the planning rules are protected under the Local Government Act 1999. Ask the council directly. Our council tree guide covers what you can ask for.

What happens if you remove one without approval

Undertaking development without the required approval is an offence under section 215 of the Act, and the maximum penalties are substantial. A court can also make orders to make good the damage, which can include replanting. Make sure the approval is in place before anyone starts cutting. A good arborist will usually ask whether a tree is regulated before quoting to remove it. See arborist vs tree lopper for what to check.

What might change

The state's Tree Protection and Planting Code Amendment was initiated in August 2024 and is still listed by PlanSA as progressing, with consultation dates not yet set. It proposes extending the overlay to townships in Greater Adelaide and reviewing how trees near dwellings and pools are handled. Nothing in it has taken effect yet. If it is adopted, more trees outside metropolitan Adelaide could become regulated, and the 3 metre rule could change, so check PlanSA's page before relying on this guide for a borderline tree.

Not in SA? The ACT also uses the term “regulated tree”, but under a different law with a different test. See the ACT tree removal laws page, or is my tree protected? for the other states.