Site plans for Brisbane, Queensland: drawn in minutes
Need a site plan for a shed, patio, carport, deck, pool or granny flat in Brisbane? Site plans and assessments in minutes, drawn over the real lot.
Towns and suburbs in Brisbane include Chermside, Carindale, Indooroopilly, Sunnybank and The Gap.
Building in Brisbane
Character is the first thing to check in Brisbane. The traditional building character overlay over the city's older suburbs restricts structures in front of the house, and Brisbane City Council maps bushfire, flood, heritage and landslide itself, so a carport or deck on a character lot needs more thought than a standard backyard shed.
Side setbacks for a house come from the state's siting code and vary with building height, while the council's plan governs height and bulk by zone, from a two-storey limit in most residential areas to three storeys in some mixed and medium density precincts. Site cover depends on the lot, and a separate small-lot code applies to smaller blocks. A secondary dwelling has a floor area cap, must sit close to the house, is limited to one per lot, and needs an extra car space.
Sewer build-over is decided by Urban Utilities. Applications in Chermside, Carindale, Indooroopilly or Sunnybank can be followed on Development.i.
What we hold for Brisbane
For Brisbane we hold the council’s own rules for:
- sheds, garden sheds, garages and carports
- patios, pergolas, louvred roofs, decks and shade sails
- pools, fences and retaining walls
- granny flats
- driveways, water tanks and shipping containers
We also hold its current fee schedule.
Build-over of sewer and water assets is decided by Urban Utilities.
At each lot we check the council’s own mapping for flood, bushfire, landslide and heritage, and the state’s mapping for flood, bushfire, landslide, heritage and native vegetation. We also read the council’s application register for past applications on the lot.
Last checked
How approval works in Queensland
In Queensland a building certifier, usually a private one, gives the building approval for work on a house lot, and the council comes in for the parts it controls. The smallest structures are accepted development and need no building approval when they meet the state's standards. Anything larger needs building approval, and a structure that sits closer to a boundary or the street than the siting rules allow also needs the council's agreement to a siting variation; an overlay or the zone in the council's planning scheme can add a planning approval on top. The certifier and the council read the site plan for where the structure sits against each boundary, the house and any easement. Its size, its height and its distance to each boundary decide which way it goes, as per the Queensland Housing Code and the Building Regulation 2021.
Drawing the plan
Type the property address, the lot’s real boundaries load from official land records in Queensland, and you place the structure over the aerial view. The plan prints to scale with boundary lengths, setback distances, a north arrow, a legend, a site coverage table and a title block, as the site plan for a building approval or a DA.
What a certifier in Brisbane will ask you
How deep is the pool?
The depth decides whether the water needs a barrier, and the barrier has to be in place before the pool is filled. The barrier is what gets inspected, so the sheet shows where it runs and every gate with its swing.
Is the patio a pergola, a louvred roof or a solid roof?
An open pergola and a roofed patio are treated differently near the boundary, and louvres that shut to shed water count as a roof. Roofed, it also adds to the site cover total on the sheet.
Is the lot in an overlay, and what is the zoning?
A flood, bushfire, heritage or character overlay can bring a planning approval on top of the building approval, and the zone decides which of the council’s rules apply. The mapped overlays are read at the lot as the structure goes on the plan.
Are there easements, sewer mains or other services?
Work near a sewer or water main goes to the asset owner before the certifier can sign it off, on a timeline of its own. Mapped easements and mains show on the lot as it loads.
The figures for your own lot are read in a minute, from its address.
Every question a certifier asks is on the Queensland page.
Approval for the job in Brisbane
- Granny flat approval in Brisbane
- Shed approval in Brisbane
- Carport approval in Brisbane
- Patio approval in Brisbane
Changes on the way
Rule changes announced for Brisbane, for Queensland and for the whole country, the state and national lines in full on the Queensland page, each with the page that says so and the day we read it.
In the next 90 days
Nothing due in the next 90 days that we know of.
Later
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Brisbane City Plan 2014, Amendment package S (planning scheme policies)
Updates planning scheme policies: bushfire hazard assessment, mapping and mitigation guidance, and a new standard drawing for narrow and shared driveways for single dwellings
Source brisbane.qld.gov.au, read
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National Construction Code 2025
Source qbcc.qld.gov.au, read
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ABCB Housing Provisions 2025 (with NCC 2025)
Source abcb.gov.au, read
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AS 1926.1:2024 Swimming pool safety barriers
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Housing Provisions Part 10.8
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Housing Provisions Part 9.2
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H6, Specification 42 and Housing Provisions Section 13
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H8
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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State Planning Policy (draft)
Source statements.qld.gov.au, read
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National Construction Code, residential pause
Source treasury.gov.au, read
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Queensland Housing Code
Source business.qld.gov.au, read
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National Construction Code, next edition
Source abcb.gov.au, read
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No date yet
Brisbane City Plan 2014, Amendment package P (planning scheme policies)
Updates the landscape design, planting species and vegetation policies: deep planting, tree protection zones for significant vegetation and compensatory planting
Source brisbane.qld.gov.au, read
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No date yet
Brisbane City Plan 2014, Major amendment package L
Source brisbane.qld.gov.au, read
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No date yet
State-wide Bushfire Hazard Area (Bushfire Prone Area) mapping, published 2026
Source tiles.arcgis.com, read
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No date yet
AS 3959:2018 Construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas
Source store.standards.org.au, read
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No date yet
AS 4678-2002 Earth retaining structures
Source store.standards.org.au, read
What we changed for Brisbane
The rules we hold for Brisbane, each brought up to date from the page it names, newest first. The summary above reads from them.
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Rules
Read from Brisbane planning scheme
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Rules
Read from Brisbane planning scheme
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Rules
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Rules
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Rules
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Rules
Read from Brisbane planning scheme
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Rules
Read from Brisbane planning scheme
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Rules
Read from Brisbane planning scheme
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Council rules
Read from brisbane.qld.gov.au
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Council rules
Read from Brisbane planning scheme
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Council rules
Read from Brisbane planning scheme
Council notices
No story for Brisbane yet.
The sources we read for Brisbane
13 sources read for Brisbane, the newest on , each below with the day it was last read.
Planning schemes and codes
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Brisbane City Plan adopted amendments
No change
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No change
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Brisbane: building a carport or garage
No change
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No change
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Brisbane: change a development approval
No change
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No change
Fees
Pages watched for changes on the way
Standards
Follow Brisbane in a feed reader: www.rapidsiteplan.au/site-plan/brisbane/feed.xml. Every council and state has one, listed on rule changes by council and state.
RapidSiteplan is design software: you confirm details, measure on site and your certifier or council makes the approval decision. The rule above is general information, not building or legal advice. Boundaries shown are indicative, a surveyor is recommended where exact positions matter.
Serving postcodes 4000, 4101 and surrounds.
Plans for the job
Questions people ask
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