WA firebreak notices 2026/27: due dates by council, APZs and what it means for your trees

The short answer

• Your council issues the notice under section 33 of the Bush Fires Act 1954. Not complying is an offence, and the council can do the work itself and charge you.
• Due dates differ by council, and sometimes by zone or lot size within one council. Check yours in the table below.
• Bigger lots usually need a firebreak (commonly 3m wide with 4m vertical clearance). Smaller lots usually need the whole block kept to a low grass or fuel height instead.
• Several councils also require a 20 metre asset protection zone around buildings. That is about managing fuel and spacing, not clear-felling.
• Clearing the notice requires does not need a native vegetation clearing permit. Clearing beyond what it requires might.

2026/27 firebreak due dates by council

“Due by” is the date the works must be done. “Maintain to” is the date you must keep them in that state until. Each council name links to the notice or page we read.

A few notes from reading them. The City of Gosnells moved its deadline forward from 30 November to 31 October this season, and an older version of its notice is still online, so check you have the current one. The City of Cockburn works from a standing Fire Control Order (effective since 2018) rather than a new notice each year. The Shire of Murray's notice gives both 30 November and 1 December, and the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes gives two different variation deadlines, so if you are in either, work to the earlier date or ask the Shire. Not on the list? Search your council's website for “firebreak notice” or “fire hazard reduction notice”.

What a firebreak notice can require

Section 33(1) of the Bush Fires Act 1954 lets a local government give a notice to an owner or occupier, or to everyone in its district by publishing it, requiring them to clear firebreaks of the dimensions it specifies and then keep them clear of flammable matter. It can also require them to deal with anything on the land that is likely to help a bushfire start or spread. The work has to be done to the satisfaction of the council or its authorised officer.

The enforcement side is what makes it different from advice. Not complying is an offence. Under section 33(4) the council can direct its bush fire control officer to enter the land with contractors and machinery and carry out the work, and under section 33(5) it can recover the cost from the owner or occupier as a debt. That debt becomes a charge on the land, so it follows the property if it is sold. Most notices also warn of fines. We have not quoted amounts here; your notice states them.

Firebreak, fuel load and APZ: three different things

Notices mix three kinds of requirement, and it helps to keep them apart.

1. A firebreak

A strip of ground kept clear of flammable material so fire crews can get around the property and fire has nothing to run along. The most common standard in the notices we read is 3 metres wide with 4 metres of vertical clearance, placed just inside the boundaries and around sheds, haystacks and fuel storage. Some councils cap the width (Mundaring and Rockingham at 4m), some accept maintained green lawn, and Mandurah asks for 4m wide with 4.2m of clearance on lots of 4,000 m² and over. The vertical clearance is where trees come in: overhanging branches have to be pruned up to that height, and both Mundaring and Armadale define a firebreak as including the pruning or removal of living or dead trees that encroach on it.

2. A fuel or grass height limit

On small lots, most councils skip the firebreak and instead require the whole property kept low: grass at no more than 50mm (Wanneroo, Kalamunda, Serpentine Jarrahdale, Rockingham and Chittering, for example) or 10cm (Swan, Gosnells, Busselton and Capel). Several also set a cap on dead fine fuel such as leaf litter, usually expressed in tonnes per hectare. Lot size thresholds vary, but 4,047 m² (one acre) and 5,000 m² are the most common dividing lines.

3. An asset protection zone (APZ)

A low-fuel area around a building. Where a notice requires one, it is usually 20 metres from the external walls (Mundaring adds a metre per degree of slope on the downhill side). Typical conditions, taken from the Mundaring, Kalamunda, Swan and Serpentine Jarrahdale notices:

• fine fuel kept to around 2 tonnes per hectare or less;
• clear separation between tree crowns;
• lower branches pruned up to 2 metres above the ground;
• no tree branches overhanging the building;
• trees and shrubs close to the building kept small (Mundaring: nothing over 2m tall within 2m of a habitable building).

The City of Swan also caps tree canopy cover in the APZ at 15 per cent. That matches the state's planning standard: the WA Planning Commission's Planning for Bushfire Guidelines describe an APZ with canopy cover under 15 per cent, canopies at least 5 metres apart, branches not touching or overhanging the building or power lines, and lower branches removed to 2 metres. Those guidelines are written for new development; your notice only binds you to what it actually says.

Does the notice mean I have to remove trees?

Usually not whole trees. Read your notice's APZ and firebreak conditions closely and you will find most of the tree work is pruning: lifting lower branches to 2 metres, cutting back anything overhanging the roof, clearing branches out of the 4 metre firebreak clearance, and opening up gaps between crowns. The Shire of Mundaring's notice says it directly: reducing fuel load levels does not necessarily require the removal of existing natural vegetation. Cockburn's order excludes living trees from “flammable material” altogether, and Wanneroo, Gosnells and Armadale leave living trees out of their fuel height rules.

Removal comes into it in two situations. The first is a tree growing in the line of a required firebreak, which Mundaring and Armadale both treat as part of making the break. The second is an APZ with a canopy cover limit or a minimum crown separation you cannot reach by pruning. If you think removal is the only way to comply, talk to the council's fire officer first. It is also worth having an arborist look: the cheapest compliant answer is often a good crown lift rather than a felled tree. Our lopping vs pruning guide explains why that difference matters for the tree.

Do you need a clearing permit?

Clearing native vegetation in WA normally needs a permit under the Environmental Protection Act 1986. Firebreak notices are a listed exception. Schedule 6, item 10(f) of that Act covers clearing done to comply with a notice given under section 33(1) of the Bush Fires Act 1954, and item 10A covers the council doing the same work under section 33(4) when an owner does not. Schedule 6 clearing does not need a clearing permit.

Three limits are worth knowing:

• It covers what the notice requires. Clearing more than your notice asks for is not “to comply” with it.
• The separate 20 metre exemption is narrower. The clearing regulations have their own exemption for a fire risk reduction area around a building, but it applies to land that was previously lawfully cleared, and exemptions in the regulations do not apply in environmentally sensitive areas. If you are relying on that rather than a notice, check with the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.
• Other rules still apply. A clearing permit exemption is not the same as approval under your local planning scheme, a heritage listing, or federal environment law. Kalamunda tells residents who know or suspect their land has environmental sensitivities, or who plan to clear, that they must enquire first, and Swan puts environmental and heritage due diligence on the landowner. Bush Forever sites, threatened ecological communities and heritage places are the usual flags.

Outside bushfire works, WA has no statewide urban tree removal law, so the WA tree removal laws page and our permit checker are the place to start for any other tree.

Variations: when the standard firebreak will not work

If a firebreak in the standard position is impractical, for example because of a steep slope, rock, a creek or remnant bush, most councils let you apply for a variation to put alternative measures in place. Three things to know:

• Apply early. Deadlines are usually before the compliance date: 1 October at Kalamunda, Wanneroo, Armadale and Serpentine Jarrahdale, 15 October at Rockingham, 31 October at Gosnells and Capel, and 1 November at Swan, Mandurah, Harvey, Albany and Augusta-Margaret River.
• A variation is not an exemption. Kalamunda, Wanneroo and Serpentine Jarrahdale all say so in those words. You still have to carry out the approved alternative.
• Check how long it lasts. Rockingham's approvals are for one season only and Busselton's must be renewed each year, while Cockburn says its approvals continue unless the property changes ownership.

Getting it done before the deadline

1. Download this season's notice from your council's website (not last year's) and find the row for your lot size and zoning.
2. Write down the due date and the date you must maintain the works until.
3. Mark out any firebreak line and the 20 metre APZ, if your notice has one, measured from the external walls.
4. List the tree work: branches inside the firebreak's vertical clearance, branches over the roof, lower limbs under 2 metres in the APZ, crowns that need separating.
5. If any tree removal is on the list, or your land is near bushland, a wetland or a heritage place, ring the council before anyone cuts.
6. Book contractors early. Many councils share the same 1 November or 30 November deadline, so leaving it to the last week is a gamble.
7. Keep it maintained to the end date. Grass grows back, and most notices require you to keep the standard through the season, not just on the day.

For how WA compares with the 10/50 rule in NSW, Victoria's 10/30 rule and the other states, see bushfire clearing rules in every state. For trees near power lines on your block, see trees and powerlines; work near lines is not a job for a general contractor.