Do you need a permit?

Two approvals, not one

A shed can need two different kinds of approval: one about whether the use and the building suit the land (planning), and one about whether the building itself is safe and built to the code (building, or construction). The NSW Planning Portal describes exempt development as work that needs neither planning nor construction approval from a council or private certifier. That is why the first question for a farm shed in NSW is whether it can be exempt at all.

New South Wales: three pathways

On its disaster recovery pages, the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure describes outbuildings as buildings set apart from the main house (sheds and farm buildings among them, and sometimes garages and carports), and says that often you can rebuild them without development approval, as exempt development, provided you meet certain development standards.

1. Exempt development

   The state policy that sets the standards is the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008. The work must meet all of its development standards to be exempt, and it must be structurally adequate and installed to the manufacturer’s specifications, which must comply with the Building Code of Australia. The department lists separate exempt standards for farm buildings, for stock holding yards other than those used to sell stock, and for grain silos and grain bunkers.

   The farm building standards commenced on 1 January 2019 and apply in rural zones across NSW. Farm buildings cannot be exempt development on land that is “a declared area of outstanding biodiversity value, declared critical habitat or a wilderness area”, on land that is or contains a heritage item, within 18 km of the Siding Spring Observatory, or on land excluded under Schedule 4 of the policy.

2. Complying development

   If the shed is not exempt, it may be complying development: it must meet the code’s standards, and you need a complying development certificate from your council or a private certifier. The Rural Housing Code covers all rural zones, and the R5 rural residential zone, in council areas east of the Great Dividing Range. The Inland Code covers outbuildings in rural areas west of it. Both add requirements for land affected by bushfire, flooding or heritage, and some environmentally sensitive land is excluded. The Planning Portal says complying development that meets every requirement can be approved by a council or registered certifier within 20 days.

3. Development application

   If the shed cannot meet the complying development standards either, the department’s advice is to speak to the council about lodging a development application.

A change still under consideration

In 2024 the department proposed aligning the two codes. Its announcement said the Rural Housing Code operated in 38 council areas east of the Great Dividing Range and the Inland Code in 69 to the west, with different definitions and size controls for sheds. The proposals, exhibited from 15 May to 14 June 2024, included size standards for farm buildings and sheds. The Planning Portal still lists them as under consideration, with the department saying it is considering the feedback. Check the current code before relying on any size you have read elsewhere.

Victoria: what the shed is, then who can exempt it

Victoria’s building regulator explains farm buildings in a practice note, GE-06, on classifying buildings used for farming. The Victorian Building Authority now trades as the Building and Plumbing Commission.

The practice note says a building used for farming is a Class 10 (non-habitable shed), Class 7 (storage) or Class 8 (process) building depending on what it is designed, built or adapted for. Where there is doubt, the relevant building surveyor must classify it as the class it most closely resembles, under regulation 13 of the Building Regulations 2018.

The same note explains regulation 280: the relevant council can exempt a Class 10 building that is to be built on farmland and used for farming from all or any of the requirements of the regulations. If the council grants an exemption from all of them, no building permit and no certificate of final inspection is needed. The farm owner asks the council, which decides case by case. As the note describes it, the exemption is for Class 10 buildings.

Planning is a separate question in Victoria too. Where land is in the Bushfire Management Overlay, CFA says you might need a planning permit to develop it, and that the local council is the authority that decides planning applications.

Every other state and territory

The Australian Building Codes Board keeps a list of each government’s homeowner building pages. Some states and territories exempt some Class 10 buildings from needing a building permit, often on the basis of height or size, and the NCC refers those questions to the state or territory body responsible.

• ACT Government
• Queensland Building and Construction Commission
• Consumer and Business Services, South Australia
• Consumer, Building and Occupational Services, Tasmania
• Building and Energy, Western Australia
• NT Government

What to take to the council, in this guide’s reading of the pages above: what the shed is for, what will be stored or done inside it, its position on the block, and whether the land is in a bushfire, flood or heritage area. Each of those comes up in the official pages above.