Accepted development vegetation clearing codes

Queensland’s vegetation management laws allow you to carry out many routine and low-risk clearing activities without requiring a development approval.

First, consider whether your proposed clearing qualifies as exempt clearing work. If not, your activities may be eligible to be carried out without a development approval if the proposed clearing can be done in accordance with one of the following codes:

managing encroachment
clearing for an extractive industry
managing fodder harvesting
clearing to improve agricultural efficiency
managing regulated regrowth vegetation
managing a native forest practice
necessary environmental clearing
clearing for infrastructure
managing weeds.

This General guide to the vegetation clearing codes (PDF, 1.4MB) provides information that applies to all codes, including the requirement to notify us of your intended vegetation clearing activities before you start any clearing.

If your proposed clearing doesn’t fall into the above categories, consider other options for clearing native vegetation.

New codes were introduced in June 2019. If you have previously notified us of your clearing activities, please check to see whether the code you were operating under has changed. If so, you may need to lodge a new notification before you can continue to clear – check the code description for details.