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Clearing before and after a natural disaster

This page explains the notification and approval requirements to clear vegetation to prepare, deal with and recover from natural disasters.

Preparing your property for a natural disaster

Firebreaks and fire management lines

Special provisions apply to clearing for fire management.

Other clearing under a code or development approval

You may be able to undertake other clearing to mitigate the impact of natural disasters using an accepted development vegetation clearing code.

These codes are self-assessable.  You must notify us before starting to clear, and make sure you follow the requirements listed in the code. The codes in Table 1 have relevant provisions.

For any clearing beyond this scope, you’ll need to apply for a development approval.

Table 1: Clearing for natural disasters using a clearing code

Code	Vegetation types	Natural disaster provisions
Necessary environmental clearing	Category B, C and R vegetation across Queensland	Flood preparation: removal of vegetation from a watercourse to mitigate flooding
Clearing for infrastructure	Category B, C and R vegetation across Queensland	Clearing for firebreaks in non-coastal areas
Clearing for infrastructure	Category C and R vegetation across Queensland	Clearing for fire management lines
Managing regulated regrowth vegetation	Category C and R vegetation, across Queensland	Clearing for public safety risk

Cleaning-up after a disaster

Clearing debris

You can remove fallen woody debris without a permit or notification from existing tracks, roads, fire management lines and firebreaks.

Clearing in disaster-declared areas

If the government has declared your district a disaster area, you don’t need to get our approval or to notify us if the clearing is necessary to prevent or minimise any of the following:

• loss of human life, or illness or injury
• property loss or damage
• damage to the environment.

This applies for 1 year following the disaster declaration. Table 2 shows current disaster declared areas in Queensland.

Table 2: Clearing exemption dates in disaster declared areas

Disaster event	Local government area	Date declared	Exemption valid to
There are no current disaster declared areas in Queensland.	NA	NA	NA

Find out more

• Find out more about bushfires and rural fire safety.
• Contact your local rural fire service.
• Find out about deferring your land rent or instalment if you’ve been impacted by a disaster.
• Find out about repairs to bores and other water infrastructure following a disaster.
• Read about assistance for disaster-impacted Queenslanders.
• Find out about low-interest loans for disaster recovery for rural businesses and primary producers.