Site plans for Palm Island, Queensland: drawn in minutes
Need a site plan for a shed, patio, carport, deck, pool or granny flat in Palm Island? Site plans and assessments in minutes, drawn over the real lot.
Building in Palm Island
Tropical design is written into Palm Island's general residential zone: houses need wide eaves, sit a set distance from the road or in line with the buildings either side, keep gaps to the side and rear boundaries, and fences between the house and the road stay low. Buildings have a height limit.
The planning scheme has no building assessment provisions and accepts building work below that height, so sheds, carports, decks and pools take their boundary setbacks and site cover from Queensland's state siting code. In the rural zone, buildings other than farm sheds have a height limit and a cap on any single footprint, and work above the height limit becomes code assessable in several zones.
Applications to Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council are recorded on the Remote Indigenous Land and Infrastructure Program Office register.
What we hold for Palm Island
For Palm Island we hold the council’s own rules for:
- sheds, garden sheds, garages and carports
- patios and decks
- pools
- granny flats
- shipping containers
At each lot we check 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 Palm Island 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.
Is the carport open, or closed in?
How open the carport is changes whether it needs a fire rated wall near the boundary, and a roller door or a later enclosure reopens the question. A shed never takes the open carport exemption.
The figures for your own lot are read in a minute, from its address.
Every question a certifier asks is on the Queensland page.
Changes on the way
Rule changes announced for Palm Island, 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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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
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 Palm Island
The rules we hold for Palm Island, each brought up to date from the page it names, newest first. The summary above reads from them.
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Council rules
Read from palmcouncil.qld.gov.au
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Council rules
Read from palmcouncil.qld.gov.au
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Council rules
Read from palmcouncil.qld.gov.au
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Planning scheme edition
Read from palmcouncil.qld.gov.au
Council notices
No story for Palm Island yet.
The sources we read for Palm Island
No page of Palm Island’s own is on our watch yet.
Follow Palm Island in a feed reader: www.rapidsiteplan.au/site-plan/palm-island/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.
Plans for the job
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