Why Queensland has no overlay list — the three tiers of control
Victoria writes every overlay clause once, in the Victoria Planning Provisions, and every council scheme reuses the same 29 clauses and 30 map codes. Queensland took the opposite approach. The Planning Act 2016 lets each local government make its own planning scheme, and the Queensland Planning Provisions and its successor the Planning Regulation 2017 standardise zone categories and definitions but not overlay names. Brisbane's "Traditional building character overlay" has no counterpart on the Gold Coast; the Gold Coast's "Building height overlay" has no counterpart in Brisbane, which sets height through neighbourhood plan precincts instead.
On top of the scheme sits state mapping that is not an overlay but binds the same way. The State Planning Policy 2017 sets out state interests — natural hazards (flood, bushfire, landslide, coastal erosion and storm tide), biodiversity, cultural heritage, transport infrastructure — with interactive mapping that councils must integrate into their schemes and that the state assesses directly where a scheme has not. The Vegetation Management Act 1999 regulates clearing through its own map, which a council cannot override. The Building Act 1975 designates transport noise corridors that trigger the Queensland Development Code rather than the planning scheme. And in South East Queensland the regional plan, ShapingSEQ 2023, draws the Urban Footprint that decides whether urban subdivision is even open for discussion.
- Tier 1 — State mapping
- State Planning Policy 2017 hazard and coastal areas; Regulated Vegetation Management Map and PMAVs (Vegetation Management Act 1999); Koala Priority and Habitat Areas (Planning Regulation 2017); transport noise corridors (Building Act 1975); erosion prone areas (Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995); fire ant biosecurity zones (Biosecurity Regulation 2016); Priority Development Areas (Economic Development Act 2012); State Development Areas (State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971); resource tenures (Mineral Resources Act 1989, Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004).
- Tier 2 — Regional plan
- ShapingSEQ 2023, the South East Queensland Regional Plan, and its regulatory provisions: Urban Footprint, Rural Living Area, Regional Landscape and Rural Production Area. Other regions have their own regional plans with equivalent categories.
- Tier 3 — Local planning scheme
- The zone (Queensland Planning Provisions categories), any neighbourhood or local plan precinct, and the scheme's own overlay maps and overlay codes — flood, bushfire, landslide, acid sulfate soils, heritage, character, significant vegetation, height, transport noise, waterway corridors and more, named differently by each council.
The practical consequence is that a Queensland due-diligence check is a three-source exercise, and a tool that reads only the council scheme misses the state layers that most often stop a project. The Suburb Stats map loads all three tiers for each indexed suburb where the responsible authority publishes an open service, and this page explains every code it can show.
How to find the overlays and state mapping on a Queensland property
- Open the council's interactive planning-scheme mapping and search the address. Brisbane City Plan 2014 online mapping and the council's Development.i property enquiry list the zone, neighbourhood plan precinct and every scheme overlay; Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Redland and Townsville each publish an equivalent ePlan or mapping portal.
- Check the state layers separately. The State Planning Policy interactive mapping system shows the hazard, coastal, biodiversity and koala state interests; the Queensland Globe and QSpatial serve the Regulated Vegetation Management Map, PMAVs, erosion prone areas, storm tide, fire ant zones and resource tenures; GeoResGlobe shows current mining and petroleum authorities.
- For flood, get the property-level report. Brisbane's FloodWise Property Report gives flood levels, likelihood by source and the minimum habitable floor level for the lot; other councils issue flood information certificates or property reports. A screening polygon on any map — including ours — is not a substitute.
- Request a planning and development certificate from the council under the Planning Act 2016 (limited, standard or full). The standard certificate lists the zone and overlays applying and any approvals in force; the full certificate adds the assessment history. Allow the statutory turnaround time.
- Read the Form 2 seller disclosure statement, mandatory since 1 August 2025 under the Property Law Act 2023. It covers zoning, heritage listing, the Environmental Management and Contaminated Land Registers and certain notices — but it does NOT cover flood mapping or every scheme overlay, so it complements rather than replaces steps 1 to 4.
Brisbane Flood Awareness Map and FloodWise Property Report →
Queensland Globe — state vegetation, koala, coastal hazard, fire ant and tenure layers →
Scheme versions and state maps both change
Brisbane City Plan 2014 is at version 36 (operative 12 June 2026) and is amended several times a year; ShapingSEQ was replaced wholesale in December 2023; the Regulated Vegetation Management Map is updated as PMAVs are certified; fire ant zone boundaries move as the eradication program advances. A screenshot from last year is a historical document. The map states its data release on every page load and this page states its verification date under the heading.
Open the Suburb Stats map — 493 Queensland suburb areas with state and council layers
Flood — Brisbane Flood Awareness by source and likelihood, historical extents, and council floodplain overlays
Flood is the Queensland control with the most codes because Brisbane City Council publishes the most detailed public flood dataset of any Australian capital. The Flood Awareness Map separates four sources of flooding and, for each, a likelihood band. The map reproduces that structure rather than collapsing it into one "flood overlay", because a lot in the low-likelihood creek band and a lot in the high-likelihood river band are not comparable risks and should not be priced as if they were.
| Source (registry prefix) | What is flooding | Likelihood classes published |
|---|---|---|
| River (FLD_R_*) | Brisbane River flooding from catchment rainfall | H · M · L · VL |
| Creek (FLD_C_*) | Creek and waterway flooding from local rainfall | H · M · L · VL |
| Overland flow (FLD_O_*) | Stormwater running across the surface before it reaches a drain or creek | H · M · L only — the published layer has no very-low class |
| Storm tide (FLD_S_*) | Coastal inundation from a cyclone or east-coast low surge | H · M · L · VL |
H = high, M = medium, L = low, VL = very low likelihood. Overland flow has no very-low class in the published source, so the map does not invent one. Likelihood is Brisbane City Council's classification of the chance of flooding at that point in any year, not a depth.
Three further Brisbane layers are historical event footprints rather than likelihood bands: the January 1974 river flood (the council's source record is marked superseded), the January 2011 river flood, and the February 2022 river and creek flooding. They answer a different question — what actually happened — and are most useful for asking the seller whether the dwelling was inundated and what was rebuilt at what floor level. The Form 2 seller disclosure regime does not require flood history to be disclosed, so the question has to be asked.
Outside Brisbane the control is the council's own flood hazard or floodplain overlay, shown as a single code (FLOOD_FP) because most schemes publish a single mapped extent, sometimes with high, medium and low hazard classes. All of them derive from, or are integrated with, the state flood hazard area mapping under the State Planning Policy 2017. Inside any flood overlay expect minimum habitable floor levels, flood-resilient materials below the defined flood level, access and evacuation provisions and, for larger proposals, a flood impact assessment.
Flood / Floodplain
Floodplain Overlay (per-LGA) · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Every Queensland council maps a flood hazard or floodplain overlay in its own scheme, informed by the state flood-hazard-area mapping under the State Planning Policy 2017. Inside it, floor levels, flood-resilient materials, access and car-parking provisions apply, and the assessment level of a proposal can rise.
Value-add: outside Brisbane this single code is the flood control you will meet. Request the council property-level flood information (Brisbane calls it a FloodWise Property Report) before relying on a screening polygon.
February 2022 Historic Flood Extent
Historical February 2022 Brisbane River and creek/waterway extent; excludes potential overland flow · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Brisbane City Council's mapped extent of the February 2022 Brisbane River and creek flooding. It excludes potential overland flow and is a historical event footprint, not a likelihood band.
Value-add: the most recent major event, so the most reliable indicator of what actually happened at a given floor level. Ask the seller directly whether the dwelling was inundated; since 1 August 2025 the Property Law Act 2023 seller disclosure regime does not require flood history to be disclosed, so you must ask.
January 1974 Historical Brisbane River Flood Extent
Historical January 1974 Brisbane River extent; official source record is SUPERSEDED · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Brisbane City Council's mapped extent of the January 1974 Brisbane River flood. The council's own source record for this layer is marked superseded, and the map says so. It is a historical event footprint, not a likelihood class or a prediction.
Value-add: useful for one thing — asking whether a 1974-flooded lot was rebuilt with a raised floor level afterwards. Check the current flood likelihood layers and the FloodWise Property Report for anything decision-relevant.
January 2011 Historical Brisbane River Flood Extent
Historical January 2011 Brisbane River extent; official source records are ADOPTED · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Brisbane City Council's mapped extent of the January 2011 Brisbane River flood. An adopted historical layer; it does not represent creek, overland-flow or storm-tide flooding and it is not a current likelihood class.
Value-add: the 2011 event reset lender and insurer attitudes to riverside Brisbane. A lot inside this extent should be priced with a current flood report and an insurance quote in hand.
Bushfire, landslide, acid sulfate soils and the coastal hazard layers
The State Planning Policy 2017 natural-hazards state interest requires councils to map bushfire, flood, landslide, coastal erosion and storm tide hazard areas and to apply assessment provisions inside them. The Suburb Stats map shows the state and council bushfire hazard areas, council landslide and acid sulfate soils overlays, and the three state coastal components — erosion prone area, high storm tide and medium storm tide — as separate layers, because erosion setbacks and storm-tide floor levels are different controls with different costs.
Bushfire Prone Area
QLD Bushfire Hazard Area / per-LGA bushfire overlay · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
The Queensland Government maps bushfire prone areas under the State Planning Policy 2017 natural-hazards state interest, and several councils publish their own bushfire hazard overlay with very high, high, medium and potential-impact-buffer classes. A mapped hit means bushfire assessment provisions may apply to a new dwelling, and the Building Code bushfire construction standard (bushfire attack level) will be set by a site assessment.
Value-add: a secondary dwelling in a very-high or high class is usually still possible but the build specification changes — ember screens, non-combustible cladding, a defendable-space requirement — and insurance is priced accordingly. Treat a potential-impact buffer as a design constraint rather than a stop.
Landslide Hazard
Landslide Hazard Overlay · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Council landslide or steep-land overlays (Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay and the hinterland councils in particular) flag land where slope, geology or past movement make instability plausible. A geotechnical report is commonly a condition of any building or earthworks approval inside the mapped area.
Value-add: the cost sits in the ground, not the building — engineered footings, retaining and drainage. On a sloping block the report should be commissioned before the offer, not after.
Erosion Prone Area
State coastal erosion-prone-area component · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Erosion prone areas are declared by the Chief Executive under the Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995 and mapped along the whole Queensland coast. Inside them, new permanent buildings are generally not supported unless the land is already developed and the risk is managed.
Value-add: for a beachfront or estuary lot this is the first layer to read. An erosion-prone strip along the frontage removes that strip from any development footprint permanently.
High Storm Tide Inundation
State high storm-tide hazard area · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
The high storm-tide inundation area is state coastal hazard mapping of land expected to be inundated by a defined storm-tide event including projected sea-level rise, published under the State Planning Policy 2017 coastal hazards state interest.
Value-add: sets a minimum habitable floor level and can rule out ground-floor bedrooms. Insurance is the second cost.
Coastal Hazard
Coastal Hazard Overlay · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
A combined coastal-hazard overlay in council schemes covering erosion-prone land and storm-tide inundation, drawn from the state coastal hazard mapping made under the Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995 and the State Planning Policy.
Value-add: the two components behave differently — erosion sets back or forbids new building; storm tide sets a minimum habitable floor level. The map also shows them separately (EPA, ST_HIGH, ST_MED) so you can tell which one you are dealing with.
Medium Storm Tide Inundation
State medium storm-tide hazard area · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
The medium storm-tide inundation area is the lower-hazard band of the same state mapping.
Value-add: usually a floor-level and access question rather than a refusal. Confirm how much of the lot is affected — often it is the rear only.
Transport noise corridors — categories 0 to 4 and the voluntary corridor
Transport noise corridors are not a planning-scheme overlay. They are designated under the Building Act 1975 for land within a set distance of a state-controlled road or a railway, and they trigger the Queensland Development Code MP 4.4 (Buildings in a transport noise corridor), which sets acoustic construction provisions for new habitable buildings by category. Category 0 is the outermost, quietest band; category 4 is land immediately adjoining a major road or rail line. The Queensland Government publishes the mandatory state-controlled-road corridors and a separate voluntary corridor dataset; inside Brisbane, the Brisbane City Plan transport noise corridor overlay adds rail and local-road mapping and takes precedence on the map.
| Category | Typical position | Typical acoustic consequence | PremiumRea impact band |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Outer edge of the corridor | Rarely changes a build specification | 4 |
| 1 | Outer band | Upgraded glazing on the noise-facing side | 3 |
| 2 | Middle band | Acoustic glazing, sealed vents, heavier wall construction | 2 |
| 3 | Close to a busy road or rail line | Façade, glazing and ventilation treatment for every habitable room | 2 |
| 4 | Immediately adjoining a major road or railway | Most demanding provisions; we treat it as a near-exclusion for residential value-add | 1 |
| Voluntary | Near roads or rail where designation is not mandatory | Design signal — orient bedrooms away; no automatic requirement | 3 |
The category shown on the map is a screening view of the published corridor mapping. The operative category for a building approval is the property-level designation.
Transport Noise Corridor — Category 4
Mapped transport-noise category 4 · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category 4 is the highest published transport-noise-corridor category — land immediately adjoining a major road or railway. The most demanding QDC MP 4.4 construction provisions apply to any new habitable building.
Value-add: we treat category 4 as a near-automatic exclusion for a residential value-add strategy. The acoustic cost is high and the tenant pool is thin.
Transport Noise Corridor — Category 2
Mapped transport-noise category 2 · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category 2 of the transport-noise-corridor designation. QDC MP 4.4 acoustic provisions apply to new habitable buildings, including secondary dwellings, and the requirements now reach wall and roof construction as well as glazing.
Value-add: a real line item in a secondary dwelling build — acoustic glazing, sealed vents, heavier wall construction. Price it before the offer if the backyard faces the corridor.
Transport Noise Corridor — Category 3
Mapped transport-noise category 3 · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category 3 of the transport-noise-corridor designation, applied to land close to a busy state-controlled road or rail line. QDC MP 4.4 requires acoustic treatment of façades, glazing and ventilation for new habitable buildings.
Value-add: often decisive for a rooming-house or unit strategy, because every habitable room must comply. A secondary dwelling sited on the far side of the main house may test a lower category than the house itself.
Transport Noise Corridor — Category 1
Mapped transport-noise category 1 · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category 1 of the transport-noise-corridor designation. The Queensland Development Code MP 4.4 (Buildings in a transport noise corridor) sets acoustic construction provisions for new habitable buildings by category, escalating from 1 to 4.
Value-add: modest — typically upgraded glazing on the noise-facing side. Confirm the category on the property-level designation, because the mapped band is a screening view.
Voluntary Transport Noise Corridor
Voluntary transport-noise corridor mapping · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
Voluntary transport noise corridor mapping identifies land near roads or rail where the designation is not mandatory but acoustic design is recommended. It is a Queensland Government dataset published alongside the mandatory state-controlled-road corridors.
Value-add: a design signal, not a refusal. Use it to decide which way a secondary dwelling's bedroom windows face.
Transport Noise Corridor — Category 0
Mapped transport-noise category 0 · Impact band 4 (PremiumRea editorial)
Transport noise corridors are designated under the Building Act 1975 for land within a set distance of a state-controlled road or railway, in categories 0 to 4. Category 0 is the outermost, lowest-noise band; the Brisbane City Plan publishes it even though most guidance concentrates on categories 1–4.
Value-add: category 0 rarely changes a build specification. It is published here because the source publishes it, not because it should worry you.
Heritage and character — Brisbane's pre-1947 controls, heritage places, neighbourhood plans and height
Brisbane protects its timber-and-tin housing stock through three character overlays in City Plan 2014 that have no Victorian equivalent. The Traditional Building Character overlay covers houses built in 1946 or earlier in mapped areas and makes demolition assessable against a code whose default answer is no. The Dwelling House Character overlay covers pre-1947 houses outside the Character residential zone with a lighter demolition and design control. The Commercial Character Building overlay protects nominated pre-1947 shops. Separately, heritage places are entered in the Queensland Heritage Register under the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 or listed locally, and other councils run heritage and character precincts under their own names.
Two more Brisbane controls sit in this group because they shape what a lot can become. Neighbourhood plans divide the city into precincts and sub-precincts that add height, setback and use outcomes on top of the zone — the place Brisbane hides both uplift and traps. And where a scheme publishes a height-of-building overlay (Gold Coast City Plan 2016 is the clearest example), it caps the unit or townhouse yield the zone would otherwise imply.
Traditional Building Character
Brisbane Traditional Building Character overlay · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
The Traditional Building Character overlay in Brisbane City Plan 2014 applies to houses built in 1946 or earlier (often called pre-1947 houses) in mapped areas. Demolition of such a house is assessable against the traditional building character (demolition) overlay code, and new work against the (design) code.
Value-add: this is the Brisbane control that most often stops a knock-down-rebuild. A pre-1947 house in the overlay can usually be raised, extended or have a secondary dwelling added; it usually cannot be demolished unless it is structurally unsound or was substantially altered before the code applied.
Heritage Place
Heritage Place Overlay · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
A heritage place is either entered in the Queensland Heritage Register under the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 or listed as a local heritage place in the council scheme. Demolition, external alteration and most new buildings on the place require assessment against the heritage overlay code, and state-registered places need a development permit through the state.
Value-add: subdivision and second dwellings on a heritage place are possible but slow, and the design has to demonstrate no material adverse impact on cultural heritage significance. Budget for a heritage impact assessment.
Dwelling House Character
Brisbane Dwelling House Character overlay · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
The Dwelling House Character overlay in Brisbane City Plan 2014 applies to pre-1947 houses outside the Character residential zone. It controls demolition and the design of alterations so that the house's traditional character is retained, with a lighter touch than the Traditional Building Character overlay.
Value-add: extensions and a rear secondary dwelling are generally achievable; wholesale demolition needs a case. Confirm the build date from the council's pre-1947 evidence before you assume either way.
Commercial Character Building
Brisbane Commercial Character Building overlay · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
The Commercial Character Building overlay in Brisbane City Plan 2014 protects nominated pre-1947 commercial buildings — corner shops, shopfront rows — from demolition and unsympathetic alteration.
Value-add: relevant to a mixed-use or shop-top strategy rather than a house. The building generally stays; what you do inside and behind it is the negotiable part.
Heritage Character Area
Heritage Character / Streetscape Area · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
Heritage character or streetscape areas are precinct-level controls — a whole street or block whose consistent form is protected, rather than one building. Brisbane runs its equivalents through the character overlays (see TBC, DHC and CCB); other councils name a heritage or character precinct directly.
Value-add: a replacement house is usually approvable if it answers the precinct's form; a townhouse row often is not. Read the precinct provisions before assuming the zone's density is available.
Height of Building
Height of Building Overlay · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
Several schemes — Gold Coast City Plan 2016 is the clearest example — publish maximum building height as an overlay map in metres or storeys, separate from the zone. Brisbane sets height through zone precincts and neighbourhood plans rather than a stand-alone height overlay.
Value-add: this is the number that caps a unit or townhouse yield. Where no height overlay exists, the zone code and any neighbourhood plan carry the figure; the absence of a mapped height is not the absence of a limit.
Neighbourhood Plan Precinct
Brisbane neighbourhood plan precinct / sub-precinct · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
Brisbane City Plan 2014 divides much of the city into neighbourhood plans with precincts and sub-precincts, each adding local outcomes — height, setbacks, uses, streetscape — on top of the citywide zone. The map names the precinct so its code can be read.
Value-add: the neighbourhood plan is where Brisbane hides both the uplift (a precinct allowing more storeys than the zone) and the trap (a precinct capping height below it). Read it before the zone tells you anything.
What the character overlays do not do
They do not stop you raising a Queenslander, building underneath it, extending to the rear or adding a secondary dwelling behind it — those are the value-add strategies the overlays were written to accommodate. They stop the knock-down-rebuild. A pre-1947 house in the Traditional Building Character overlay is a renovation and second-dwelling site, not a townhouse site, and it should be priced as one.
Koala, regulated vegetation, PMAV, essential habitat, wetlands and significant trees
Queensland regulates vegetation clearing at state level through the Vegetation Management Act 1999, whose Regulated Vegetation Management Map classifies every parcel of the state into categories, and through the koala provisions inserted into the Planning Regulation 2017 in February 2020 for South East Queensland. A council's own significant vegetation overlay sits underneath both. For a suburban lot the practical question is always the same: does the footprint you need require clearing mapped vegetation, and if so which category, because the category sets the approval pathway.
| Category | What it is | Clearing position | PremiumRea impact band |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Land subject to a compliance, restoration or offset requirement | Retain or restore; effectively no clearing | 1 |
| B | Remnant vegetation — mature native vegetation not cleared since the baseline | Assessable development unless an accepted development code or exemption applies | 1 |
| C | High-value regrowth | Regulated; more accepted-development pathways than B | 2 |
| R | Regrowth within a set distance of a watercourse in the reef catchments | Regulated riparian buffer | 2 |
| X | Land recorded as exempt from the framework — generally cleared | Not regulated under the Act; other laws can still apply | 5 |
PMAV = Property Map of Assessable Vegetation, a lot-specific certified map. Where one exists it is the operative map; the Suburb Stats layer shows PMAV records with their published status (including Part Replaced) without deciding legal effect.
Core Koala Habitat Area
Core koala habitat mapping · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Core koala habitat is the highest-value class of the state koala habitat mapping. Inside a Koala Priority Area, interfering with core habitat is prohibited development for most purposes.
Value-add: treat core habitat over the developable part of a lot as an exclusion for any strategy that requires clearing.
Regulated Vegetation — Category A
Regulated Vegetation Management Map category A · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category A on the Regulated Vegetation Management Map under the Vegetation Management Act 1999 identifies land subject to a compliance notice, restoration notice or offset — vegetation that must be retained or restored because of a past breach or condition.
Value-add: an exclusion for clearing. Category A rarely covers a suburban lot; where it does, the reason is on the title or in the council's records and should be found before contract.
Regulated Vegetation — Category B
Regulated Vegetation Management Map category B · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category B is remnant vegetation — mature native vegetation not cleared since the Act's baseline. Clearing is assessable development under the Planning Act 2016 unless an accepted development code or exemption applies.
Value-add: a Category B polygon over the backyard means a secondary dwelling footprint has to be found in cleared land or the proposal moves to state assessment. Acreage and hinterland blocks carry it most often.
Vegetation Management Essential Habitat
Official Vegetation Management Act essential-habitat record · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
Essential habitat mapping under the Vegetation Management Act 1999 identifies remnant vegetation that is habitat for a protected species. Clearing within it is assessed against stricter criteria than the underlying category alone.
Value-add: an additional layer of assessment, not usually a different answer — but it adds an ecological assessment to the cost of a clearing application.
PMAV — Category A Record
Official Property Map of Assessable Vegetation category A record and status · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
A Property Map of Assessable Vegetation is a lot-specific, certified version of the regulated vegetation map made under the Vegetation Management Act 1999. A PMAV Category A record fixes Category A status on the lot regardless of what the regional map shows.
Value-add: where a PMAV exists it is the operative map. The record shown includes status and identifiers as published — including Part Replaced — without deciding their current legal effect; obtain the current certified PMAV.
PMAV — Category B Record
Official Property Map of Assessable Vegetation category B record and status · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
A PMAV Category B record fixes remnant vegetation status on the specific lot. It overrides the regional Regulated Vegetation Management Map for that land.
Value-add: a certified constraint on clearing that a regional Category X on the state map cannot undo. Check the PMAV before the state map.
Acid Sulfate Soils
Acid Sulfate Soils Overlay · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Acid sulfate soils are natural coastal and estuarine soils that release sulfuric acid when excavated or drained. The State Planning Policy identifies land at or below 5 m Australian Height Datum as the trigger area, and council schemes carry an acid sulfate soils overlay code that requires investigation and a management plan for earthworks below set depths.
Value-add: mostly a construction-detail cost — soil testing, treatment and disposal — that matters for pools, basements and deep footings more than for a slab-on-ground secondary dwelling.
Koala Priority Area
Queensland Koala Priority Area · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Koala Priority Areas are state mapping made under the Planning Regulation 2017 koala provisions inserted in February 2020 for South East Queensland. Clearing koala habitat inside a priority area is assessable, and some categories of development are prohibited on core habitat.
Value-add: a mapped priority area over a treed block changes the approval pathway for a secondary dwelling or subdivision from code to impact assessment. Get the koala habitat category for the exact lot before you plan clearing.
Koala Habitat Area
Queensland Koala Habitat Area, including locally refined mapping where supplied · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Koala Habitat Areas are the state-mapped areas of koala habitat inside and outside the priority areas, including locally refined mapping where a council has supplied it. They trigger assessment of clearing under the Planning Regulation 2017.
Value-add: the constraint is on clearing, not on building per se. A footprint that avoids the mapped trees generally proceeds; one that needs them removed does not.
Regulated Vegetation — Category C
Regulated Vegetation Management Map category C · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category C is high-value regrowth — native vegetation that has regrown for long enough to have conservation value. Clearing is regulated, with more accepted-development pathways than Category B.
Value-add: usually workable with a clearing plan; check whether the works you need fall inside an accepted development vegetation clearing code.
Regulated Vegetation — Category R
Regulated Vegetation Management Map category R · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category R is regrowth within a defined distance of a watercourse or drainage feature in the Great Barrier Reef catchments (Burdekin, Mackay–Whitsunday, Wet Tropics, Burnett–Mary, Fitzroy, Eastern Cape York). Clearing is regulated to protect water quality.
Value-add: relevant to North and Central Queensland lots that touch a creek line. It sets a riparian buffer that the building envelope must respect.
PMAV — Category C Record
Official Property Map of Assessable Vegetation category C record and status · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
A PMAV Category C record fixes high-value regrowth status on the specific lot.
Value-add: as for Category C generally, with the certainty of a certified map; the clearing pathway is set by the accepted development codes.
PMAV — Category R Record
Official Property Map of Assessable Vegetation category R record and status · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
A PMAV Category R record fixes watercourse-regrowth status on the specific lot in the reef catchments.
Value-add: a certified riparian buffer. Any building envelope must be designed around it.
Wetland Protection Area
High ecological significance wetland / wetland trigger area · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Wetland protection areas and wetland trigger areas are state mapping of high-ecological-significance wetlands (the Map of Referable Wetlands and the Great Barrier Reef wetland protection areas). Development within a trigger area is referred for state assessment.
Value-add: a buffer that removes part of the developable footprint. Common on low-lying coastal and canal-estate fringes; rare in established suburbs.
Significant Tree / Vegetation
Significant Tree Overlay / Vegetation · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
Significant tree and vegetation overlays in council schemes protect nominated trees, vegetation corridors and, in some schemes, all native vegetation above a size threshold. Removal, and in some cases works within the tree protection zone, requires approval.
Value-add: on a development site the overlay dictates where the building envelope can go, because the alternative is a refused clearing application. Combine it with the state vegetation layers (RVM, koala) before you draw a footprint.
Regulated Vegetation — Category X
Official Regulated Vegetation Management Map category X record · Impact band 5 (PremiumRea editorial)
Category X is land the official map records as exempt from the vegetation management framework — generally cleared land. The map shows the official record; it is not a conclusion that every other law (koala, council vegetation overlay, protected plants) is satisfied.
Value-add: the category you want under a development footprint, but confirm it against the current property map and the council's own vegetation overlay before treating clearing as free.
PMAV — Category X Record
Official Property Map of Assessable Vegetation category X record and status · Impact band 5 (PremiumRea editorial)
A PMAV Category X record certifies land as exempt from the vegetation management framework — the outcome many landholders apply for precisely so a future purchaser has certainty about clearing.
Value-add: the most useful vegetation record a Queensland development lot can carry, but it is neutral source information here — other laws and site conditions still apply.
ShapingSEQ 2023 land-use categories, Priority Development Areas and State Development Areas
Whether a Queensland lot can ever be subdivided for urban housing is decided one tier above the council. ShapingSEQ 2023, the South East Queensland Regional Plan, places every parcel of the region into a land-use category. Inside the Urban Footprint, urban development is the intended outcome and the council zone governs the detail. In the Rural Living Area, existing large-lot residential land is recognised but further subdivision below the scheme minimum is generally not supported. In the Regional Landscape and Rural Production Area, the regional plan's regulatory provisions generally prohibit urban development and subdivision for urban purposes outright — however the council has zoned the land.
Two further state-led mechanisms replace the council rulebook entirely for the land they cover. A Priority Development Area, declared under the Economic Development Act 2012 and administered by Economic Development Queensland, has its own development scheme — often faster and more permissive for density, sometimes with mandatory affordable-housing provisions. A State Development Area under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 serves major industrial and infrastructure precincts and is generally not a residential opportunity but a neighbouring-amenity question. The Suburb Stats map shows both boundaries and, for PDAs, the verified EDQ approval and change decisions of the last 12 months mapped to the suburb.
Regional Landscape and Rural Production Area
ShapingSEQ Regional Landscape and Rural Production Area · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
The Regional Landscape and Rural Production Area is the ShapingSEQ 2023 category protecting rural production, landscape and environmental values. Urban development and subdivision for urban purposes are generally prohibited by the regional plan's regulatory provisions.
Value-add: the state-level answer to "can this farmland be subdivided" is no. A secondary dwelling under the council's rural zone code remains the realistic value-add.
Priority Development Area
Economic Development Queensland Priority Development Area · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
A Priority Development Area is declared under the Economic Development Act 2012 and administered by Economic Development Queensland, whose development scheme replaces the council planning scheme for the declared land. Assessment is made by the Minister for Economic Development Queensland or a delegate.
Value-add: inside a PDA the rulebook is the development scheme, not the council scheme — often faster and more permissive for density, sometimes with mandatory affordable-housing or design provisions. Read the scheme, and note the map also shows verified EDQ decisions in the last 12 months.
State Development Area
Queensland State Development Area · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
A State Development Area is declared under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 for major industrial and infrastructure precincts, with its own development scheme administered by the Coordinator-General.
Value-add: residential development is generally not the purpose of an SDA. A dwelling near one should be assessed for industrial-buffer amenity impacts rather than for its own development potential.
Rural Living Area
ShapingSEQ Rural Living Area · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
The Rural Living Area is the ShapingSEQ 2023 category for existing large-lot residential and rural-residential land. Further subdivision below the scheme's minimum lot size is generally not supported.
Value-add: an acreage strategy — a secondary dwelling on a large lot — fits here; a subdivision strategy generally does not.
Urban Footprint
ShapingSEQ Urban Footprint · Impact band 4 (PremiumRea editorial)
The Urban Footprint is a regional land-use category in ShapingSEQ 2023, the South East Queensland Regional Plan. Land inside it is intended for urban purposes; land outside it cannot generally be subdivided for urban residential use, however it is zoned.
Value-add: being inside the Urban Footprint is a precondition for urban subdivision, not a permission. The council zone still governs; the Urban Footprint just means the state will not block urban development in principle.
Fire ant biosecurity zones and resource tenures
Two layers on the map are not planning controls at all but bind a building project just as firmly. Fire ant biosecurity zones, set under the Biosecurity Regulation 2016 as part of the National Fire Ant Eradication Program, restrict the movement of soil, mulch, turf, potted plants and similar carriers off a property in Zone 1 and, with lighter conditions, Zone 2 — which means excavated spoil and landscaping materials on a South East Queensland build cannot simply be trucked out. Resource tenures — Authorities to Prospect and Petroleum Leases under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 and Mining Leases under the Mineral Resources Act 1989 — show authority boundaries that matter for regional and peri-urban acquisitions and almost never for a suburban lot.
Fire Ant Biosecurity Zone 1
Current mapped fire-ant biosecurity zone 1 · Impact band 2 (PremiumRea editorial)
Fire ant biosecurity zones are set under the Biosecurity Regulation 2016 as part of the National Fire Ant Eradication Program. Zone 1 is the inner area where movement of soil, mulch, turf, potted plants and similar carriers off the property is restricted without treatment or a biosecurity instrument permit.
Value-add: a compliance cost on any build — excavated spoil and landscaping materials cannot simply be trucked out. Check the current zone, because boundaries move as the program advances.
Fire Ant Biosecurity Zone 2
Current mapped fire-ant biosecurity zone 2 · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
Zone 2 of the fire ant biosecurity zones, with movement conditions for the same carrier materials but a lighter regime than Zone 1.
Value-add: builders working in South East Queensland price this in routinely; make sure your quote does.
Mining Lease
Current Queensland mining lease · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
A Mining Lease is granted under the Mineral Resources Act 1989 and authorises mining on the leased land. The boundary is the tenure, and surface rights over private land are governed by compensation agreements and the Land Access Code.
Value-add: a current mining lease over or adjoining a lot is a material fact for financing, insurance and resale. Confirm tenure status, holder and whether surface access applies.
Petroleum Lease
Current Queensland petroleum lease · Impact band 1 (PremiumRea editorial)
A Petroleum Lease is a production tenure under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 — coal-seam-gas fields in the Surat and Bowen basins are the common case.
Value-add: relevant to regional Queensland acquisitions. Well sites, pipelines and access tracks on a lease can affect a rural lot's usable area and amenity.
Authority to Prospect — Petroleum
Current petroleum exploration authority · Impact band 3 (PremiumRea editorial)
An Authority to Prospect is a petroleum exploration tenure granted under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004. The polygon shows the authority boundary, which can cover thousands of square kilometres; it does not indicate activity on any particular lot.
Value-add: for a suburban lot almost always irrelevant. For a rural or peri-urban lot, ask the seller about any conduct and compensation agreement and check the resource authority's status on GeoResGlobe.
Queensland zoning — the Queensland Planning Provisions zone categories the map displays
Every Queensland council scheme is built on the standard zone categories of the Queensland Planning Provisions, so a Low-medium density residential zone means broadly the same thing in Logan as in Moreton Bay even though each council writes its own zone code. Where a council publishes an open zoning service — Brisbane, Gold Coast, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Logan and Townsville at the time of writing — the Suburb Stats map normalises the council's zone onto the codes below and keeps the council's own wording and precinct in the description. The zone answers what the land is for and at what density band; the overlays on this page answer what conditions apply.
| Code | Zone | Category | What it typically means for a buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| LDR | Low density residential | Residential | Detached houses on standard lots — the default suburban zone. Secondary-dwelling (granny flat) and small-lot rules sit in the council's dwelling house code. |
| CR | Character residential | Residential | Pre-1946 housing character areas (Brisbane). Demolition and new builds are controlled by the traditional building character code; the Infill housing precinct allows some intensification. |
| LMDR | Low-medium density residential | Residential | Townhouses, terraces and 2–3 storey walk-up units alongside houses — the typical dual-occupancy / small unit-block zone. |
| MDR | Medium density residential | Residential | Unit blocks and townhouses, typically 3–5 storeys near centres and transport; site cover and car-parking codes drive feasibility. |
| HDR | High density residential | Residential | Apartment towers (Brisbane precincts allow up to 8 or 15 storeys). Body-corporate stock; land carries a development premium. |
| GR | General residential | Residential | Council "General residential" zone with no density precinct recorded — check the scheme for the dwelling types allowed. |
| EC | Emerging community | Residential | Land identified for future urban development but not yet structure-planned. Interim rural uses apply until a development approval or neighbourhood plan lands. |
| TS | Township | Residential | Small rural towns — houses, shops and local services at village scale, often with residential / centre / industry precincts. |
| PC | Principal centre | Centres & mixed use | Top-order CBD or regional centre — the highest-intensity retail, office and residential towers in the scheme. |
| MC | Major centre | Centres & mixed use | Major regional centre — large shopping centres, offices and higher-density residential. |
| DC | District centre | Centres & mixed use | District-level shops, services and offices serving several suburbs; medium-rise mixed use is common. |
| LC | Local centre | Centres & mixed use | Local shopping strip serving the surrounding suburbs — supermarket-anchored, low-to-medium rise. |
| NC | Neighbourhood centre | Centres & mixed use | Corner-shop scale services for the immediate neighbourhood. |
| CE | Centre | Centres & mixed use | Council "Centre" zone whose tier (principal / major / district / local) is set by precinct or local plan rather than the zone name. |
| SC | Specialised centre | Centres & mixed use | Single-purpose centres — universities, hospitals, markets, large-format retail, marinas. |
| MU | Mixed use | Centres & mixed use | Shops, offices and apartments in one building or precinct — usually along corridors and the inner-city frame. |
| INN | Innovation | Centres & mixed use | Knowledge, research and creative-industry precincts (Gold Coast) — universities, health and screen industry. |
| TA | Tourist accommodation | Centres & mixed use | Short-stay accommodation — hotels, resorts, serviced apartments; permanent residential is usually a secondary use. |
| MT | Major tourism | Centres & mixed use | Large tourist attractions and resorts (theme parks, Australia Zoo, The Spit). |
| LII | Low impact industry | Industry | Service and light industry — warehouses, trades, showrooms — compatible near residential areas. |
| IN | General industry | Industry | Council "General industry" / "Industry" zone spanning low-to-medium impact uses (Brisbane General industry A/B/C, Moreton Bay Industry precincts). |
| MII | Medium impact industry | Industry | Manufacturing and heavier warehousing with moderate off-site impacts; separation buffers to housing apply. |
| HII | High impact industry | Industry | Heavy industry with significant noise, odour or hazard impacts — large separation from housing. |
| SI | Special industry | Industry | Industries with extreme impacts (refineries, abattoirs, chemical works) kept well away from sensitive uses. |
| II | Industry investigation | Industry | Land held for possible future industry (Brisbane) — interim rural-style uses until investigated. |
| EI | Extractive industry | Industry | Quarries and sand / gravel extraction, with buffer areas that restrict nearby housing. |
| WMI | Waterfront and marine industry | Industry | Boat building, marinas and port-related industry on waterfront land. |
| MIB | Mixed industry and business | Industry | Business-park style mix of light industry, offices and showrooms. |
| CF | Community facilities | Community & special purpose | Schools, hospitals, churches, cemeteries, emergency services and utilities — not developable for housing. |
| SP | Special purpose | Community & special purpose | Airports, ports, defence, rail and major infrastructure — publicly held or single-use land. |
| RR | Rural residential | Rural, open space & environment | Large-lot living (typically 4,000 m² to 2 ha+) with limited services; subdivision below the minimum lot size is usually not permitted. |
| RU | Rural | Rural, open space & environment | Farming and grazing land; generally one dwelling per lot and subdivision below the minimum lot size is refused. |
| OS | Open space | Rural, open space & environment | Parks and reserves — public land that cannot be built on but lifts the amenity of adjoining lots. |
| SR | Sport and recreation | Rural, open space & environment | Sports fields, golf courses, showgrounds and recreation clubs. |
| EMC | Environmental management and conservation | Rural, open space & environment | Protected bushland, wetlands and habitat — development is effectively prohibited. |
| CN | Conservation | Rural, open space & environment | Conservation land (national parks, reserves, Brisbane Conservation zone) — no development. |
| PDA | Priority development area | Other | State-controlled Priority Development Area — Economic Development Queensland's development scheme applies instead of the council scheme. |
| LD | Limited development | Other | Constrained land (flooding, landslip, coastal or fragmentation) where further development is restricted. |
| UZ | Unzoned | Other | Unzoned / not applicable — road reserves, waterways or land outside the scheme's zone maps. |
Codes beyond the QPP list (Brisbane CR, II, IN; Gold Coast INN, MT, WMI; Moreton Bay MIB; generic CE; GR; UZ; PDA) exist only where a scheme has a zone the QPP does not, and are applied consistently across every council.
For a value-add investor the residential band is the whole game. Low density residential is the default detached-house zone where a secondary dwelling is the realistic uplift; Low-medium density residential is where dual occupancy, townhouses and small unit blocks become assessable rather than prohibited; Medium and High density residential carry a development premium in the land price that a single house rarely justifies. Brisbane's Character residential zone is the exception that proves the rule — its Infill housing precinct allows some intensification, but the pre-1947 house on the lot generally stays.
The layers that most often stop a secondary dwelling in Queensland
Since the Planning (Secondary Dwellings) Amendment Regulation 2022 a Queensland secondary dwelling may be rented to anyone, and in most residential zones it is accepted development subject to the council's dwelling house code. What turns it into an assessable application, or stops it, is almost always a layer on this page: a flood likelihood or floodplain overlay that sets a floor level the design cannot meet economically; Category B regulated vegetation or koala habitat over the only part of the yard the unit fits; a Traditional Building Character overlay where the plan was to demolish rather than add; a transport noise corridor category 3 or 4 that makes every habitable room an acoustic cost; an erosion prone area or high storm tide band along a coastal rear boundary; a fire ant zone that prices the earthworks.
Two more are geometric rather than mapped, and the map helps with both: the Queensland Development Code siting provisions (1.5 m side and rear clearances under the former MP 1.2, now carried in the Queensland Housing Code commencing 1 September 2026) and the council's own lot-size or gross-floor-area limb — Sunshine Coast 600 m², Cairns 450 m², Ipswich banded from 450 m²; Brisbane, Logan, Gold Coast, Moreton Bay, Redland and Townsville set no lot-size limb. The Granny Flat Site Planner tests both against a specific address.
Test a Queensland address against council rules, QDC siting and the overlays on this page
The layers that most often stop a subdivision in Queensland
The order of questions is fixed by the three tiers. First, is the lot inside the ShapingSEQ 2023 Urban Footprint (or the equivalent category in a regional plan outside SEQ)? Outside it, urban subdivision is generally prohibited by the regional plan and the conversation ends. Second, does the zone and its minimum lot size allow the lots you want — reconfiguring a lot is assessable development under the Planning Act 2016 and the council's reconfiguration code sets the minimum size and frontage by zone and precinct. Third, which layers on this page cut into the developable area: flood (every new lot must have a buildable, flood-immune building envelope and access), regulated vegetation and koala habitat (the new lot boundaries must work around mapped vegetation or the clearing becomes state-assessable), erosion prone and storm tide areas, and any character overlay that keeps the existing house where it stands.
Infrastructure charges are the cost that surprises interstate buyers. Under the Planning Act 2016 a council levies adopted infrastructure charges on each new lot or dwelling, published in its charges resolution — commonly in the order of tens of thousands of dollars per additional lot in South East Queensland, varying by council and dwelling size. They belong in the feasibility from the first draft and are not shown as a map layer because they apply everywhere in the scheme area.
The Victorian comparison — dual occupancy and subdivision in Melbourne
What Queensland overlays and state mapping do not do
- They do not change the zone, and therefore do not change what the land may be used for.
- They do not, of themselves, decide an application. Every mapped hit on this page is a trigger for assessment against a code; the code, the schedule and the proposal decide the answer.
- They are not a flood certificate, a bushfire attack level, an acoustic report or a geotechnical report. Each of those comes from a site-specific assessment that the mapped layer tells you to commission.
- They do not appear in the Form 2 seller disclosure statement in full. Zoning, heritage listing and the contaminated-land registers do; flood mapping and most scheme overlays do not, so the buyer's own search remains the safeguard.
- They do not stay still. Scheme versions, state maps, regional plans and biosecurity zones are all amended; the operative instrument is the one in force on the day of your decision.
The corollary is the same in Queensland as in Victoria: a control reduces value only to the extent it removes something the market was pricing in. A Traditional Building Character overlay on a Queenslander that was never going to be demolished changes nothing about that purchase. The same overlay on a lot bought for a townhouse row is the whole deal.