Site plans for Southern Downs, Queensland: drawn in minutes
Need a site plan for a shed, patio, carport, deck, pool or granny flat in Southern Downs? Site plans and assessments in minutes, drawn over the real lot.
Towns and suburbs in Southern Downs include Warwick, Stanthorpe, Allora and Killarney.
Building in Southern Downs
Southern Downs Regional Council does its own building certification, so applications for sheds, carports and similar structures are lodged with the council rather than a private certifier, and the council issues the decision. It publishes a site plan specification: a north point, boundaries and dimensions, each setback measured to the outermost projection, existing buildings, easements, the stormwater discharge point and any council main crossing the lot.
The residential uses code sets front and side street setbacks, with side and rear gaps from the state siting code, limits cut and fill on sloping sites, and keeps a share of the site for landscaping and open space. In the bushfire hazard overlay, a shed close to a house may need to meet the bushfire construction standard, and taller retaining walls need engineering details.
A draft replacement scheme is on exhibition. Applications in Warwick, Stanthorpe, Allora and Killarney can be tracked online.
What we hold for Southern Downs
For Southern Downs we hold the council’s current fee schedule.
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 Southern Downs will ask you
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 patio, shed or carport attached to the house?
Whether it fixes to the house changes how it is classified, and so what the certifier checks near the boundary. The sheet says which it is.
How close to the boundary can it go?
The distance to each boundary decides whether the work can stand where it is drawn or needs an application for a closer position, and close to a side or rear boundary the fire rules apply too. The sheet dimensions the distance from the structure to every boundary.
Who gives the approval, and who draws the plan?
The certifier or the council gives the approval, and the site plan can come from the builder, the supplier, a drafter or the owner, as long as it is clear and to scale. A surveyor comes in where the position of a boundary on the ground has to be fixed.
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 Southern Downs, 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 Southern Downs
The rules we hold for Southern Downs, 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 rapidsiteplan.au
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Rules
Read from Southern Downs Planning Scheme codes
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Planning scheme edition
Read from sdrc.qld.gov.au
Council notices
No story for Southern Downs yet.
The sources we read for Southern Downs
3 sources read for Southern Downs, the newest on , each below with the day it was last read.
Planning schemes and codes
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Southern Downs Planning Scheme codes
Changed since the read before
Fees
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Southern Downs fees and charges 2026-27
No change
Standards
Follow Southern Downs in a feed reader: www.rapidsiteplan.au/site-plan/southern-downs/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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