Bushfire prone area map: where to find it in every state

Each state and territory publishes its own official bushfire prone area map, and each one is made differently and means something slightly different. In Queensland it is the state Bushfire Prone Area map plus each council's planning scheme overlay. In New South Wales it is the Bush Fire Prone Land map certified by the Rural Fire Service. Victoria has two layers, the Bushfire Prone Area and the Bushfire Management Overlay. South Australia uses bushfire hazard overlays in the Planning and Design Code, Tasmania a bushfire-prone areas overlay in each council's planning scheme, the ACT a Bushfire Prone Area map from its Emergency Services Agency, and Western Australia the Map of Bush Fire Prone Areas, designated by the Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner and applied through State Planning Policy 3.7 and its Planning for Bushfire Guidelines. If a lot is on the map, bushfire rules apply to building on it.

Below is where to find each map and how to read it. The bushfire attack level (BAL) for the house itself is a separate site assessment under AS 3959.

Queensland

The state map is the Bushfire Prone Area mapping, produced by CSIRO with the state fire service. It combines potential fuel load, landscape slope and fire weather into a potential fire-line intensity, then splits the mapped land into classes:

• Very High, High and Medium Potential Bushfire Intensity
• Potential Impact Buffer: land within 100 metres of those areas

You can view it in the State Planning Policy interactive mapping system, and in the Queensland Fire Department's Bushfire Resilient Communities MapViewer, which also shows the vegetation hazard class, slope and fire weather behind it.

The state map is not the whole story. Councils carry bushfire hazard overlays in their planning schemes, and the building rules for bushfire areas apply where a council's planning scheme designates a bushfire prone area. A council overlay can differ from the state map, so check both, and treat the council's planning scheme map as the one that decides the building rules for the lot.

New South Wales

The NSW map is the Bush Fire Prone Land map. Councils prepare it and the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service certifies it. It must be recertified at least every five years, and the Commissioner can amend it at any time.

The map shows vegetation and a buffer around it:

• Vegetation Category 1 (red): forest, woodland, heath, forested wetland and timber plantations, the highest risk, with a 100 metre buffer
• Vegetation Category 2 (light orange): lower risk vegetation, with a 30 metre buffer
• Vegetation Category 3 (dark orange): grassland, freshwater wetland, semi-arid woodland, alpine complex and arid shrubland, medium risk, with a 30 metre buffer

A lot inside the vegetation or its buffer is bush fire prone land, and development on it has to meet Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019. You can check an address with the RFS online tool or the NSW Planning Portal spatial viewer, and it is stated on the section 10.7 planning certificate from the council. What else that certificate tells you is covered in reading a section 10.7 certificate.

Victoria

Victoria has two separate maps, and a lot can be in one, both or neither:

• Bushfire Prone Area (BPA). A building system map, designated by the Minister for Planning under the Building Act 1993. Every new home in a BPA must be built to at least BAL-12.5.
• Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO). A planning scheme control for areas of high or extreme bushfire risk. Land in the BMO needs a planning permit for many kinds of development, covering where the house goes, vegetation management, access and water supply for firefighting.

Both layers are in VicPlan, under the bushfire folder in the layers menu. The BMO also appears on the planning property report for the lot.

South Australia

South Australia maps bushfire hazard as overlays in the Planning and Design Code, viewed in the SA Property and Planning Atlas (SAPPA) under the hazards overlays. There are six: High Risk, Medium Risk, General Risk, Urban Interface, Regional and Outback.

The class matters. New buildings in the High Risk overlay need an on-site BAL assessment, and dwellings there are referred to the Country Fire Service. In the Medium Risk overlay a designated BAL-12.5 applies. The Regional and Outback overlays were applied without detailed risk mapping, as a precaution. A state-wide update to the mapping was out for consultation until April 2024, so check SAPPA for the overlay in force when you look. For how the classes split across one region, see the Adelaide Hills bushfire and flood overlays.

Tasmania

Tasmania's map is the bushfire-prone areas overlay, prepared by the Tasmania Fire Service and included in each council's Local Provisions Schedule under the Tasmanian Planning Scheme. You can view it on the LIST.

The Bushfire-Prone Areas Code in the planning scheme applies to subdividing land and to vulnerable or hazardous uses in the overlay. For building, the definition reaches further: where a council has no overlay map, land within 100 metres of at least one hectare of bushfire-prone vegetation is a bushfire-prone area. So a lot outside the mapped overlay is not automatically clear.

Australian Capital Territory

The ACT Emergency Services Agency maps the Bushfire Prone Area, which you can view on ACTmapi. It covers Canberra's urban edges next to forest and grassland, and all of the ACT's rural area. Development in it has to meet the ACT Bushfire Management Standards.

What a bushfire prone area map does not tell you

• It is not a BAL. The map says the rules apply. The BAL for the house comes from a site assessment of the vegetation, distance and slope, and two lots in the same mapped area can have very different ratings.
• It is not an insurance rating. Insurers make their own assessment of a property.
• It changes. Maps are reviewed as vegetation grows back, land is cleared or new estates go in. A lot that was off the map at purchase can be on it later, and the other way round.

How to check a lot

1. Note the category, not just yes or no: the vegetation category in NSW, the overlay in SA, BPA or BMO in Victoria, the intensity class in Queensland.
2. In Queensland, check the council planning scheme bushfire overlay as well as the state map.
3. If the lot is mapped, get a BAL assessment before you design, because it sets windows, cladding, decks and sometimes where the house can sit.

Common questions

How do I know if my property is in a bushfire prone area?

Look the address up on your state's official map: the State Planning Policy mapping and your council's planning scheme in Queensland, the RFS tool or Planning Portal in NSW, VicPlan in Victoria, SAPPA in South Australia, the LIST in Tasmania or ACTmapi in the ACT. In NSW it is also shown on the section 10.7 planning certificate.

What is the bush fire prone land map in NSW?

It is the map of bushfire vegetation and its buffers that each council prepares and the NSW RFS Commissioner certifies. Category 1 vegetation has a 100 metre buffer and Categories 2 and 3 a 30 metre buffer. Development on mapped land has to meet Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019.

What is the difference between the BPA and the BMO in Victoria?

The Bushfire Prone Area is a building map: new homes in it must be built to at least BAL-12.5. The Bushfire Management Overlay is a planning control for higher risk land, and it can require a planning permit with conditions on siting, vegetation, access and water supply.

Can I build in a bushfire prone area?

Yes, in most cases. Being on the map means the building has to meet bushfire construction requirements and, in some places, planning requirements. The highest risk sites can face real limits, such as the exclusion of BAL-40 and BAL-FZ land from complying development in NSW.

The Property Report shows whether a lot falls in mapped bushfire prone land and the hazard category it sits in, alongside zoning, flood and the other overlays. Pop in your address or check out a sample report.

LayeredGeo's Property Report pulls together public planning and site data for property due diligence across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania, so you can understand a place before you commit.

Sources

• Queensland Fire Department. Bushfire Resilient Communities MapViewer user guide, January 2025. fire.qld.gov.au
• NSW Rural Fire Service. Guide for bush fire prone land mapping. rfs.nsw.gov.au
• NSW Department of Planning. Planning circular PS 21-010: Development on bush fire prone land. planning.nsw.gov.au
• Victorian Government. Building in designated bushfire prone areas. planning.vic.gov.au
• YourSAy. Updating South Australia's bushfire hazard mapping and planning rules. yoursay.sa.gov.au
• ACT Emergency Services Agency. ACT Bushfire Management Standards, version 1.2. esa.act.gov.au

About this article. Published by LayeredGeo and written from the published research cited in the Sources section above. It is general information about how property and ground conditions are assessed in Australia, not engineering, planning, legal or financial advice, and it is not specific to any property. Check anything that matters against the source dataset or a suitably qualified professional before you rely on it. If you spot something wrong, tell us at hello@layeredgeo.com.au and we will fix it.

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