Bush fire prone land is a map, made by a council under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and certified by the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service. It is not a prediction about a particular house.
Land is mapped either because it carries vegetation of a certain type, or because it sits within a buffer behind that vegetation. The buffer is the part people miss: a property with no vegetation on it at all can be bush fire prone because of what is over the back fence.
The map distinguishes vegetation categories, and the category drives what a development has to satisfy. Category 1 — forest, woodland, heath, forested wetland and timber plantation — is the highest hazard class and carries a 100 metre buffer. "Bush fire prone" on its own tells you less than the category and the distance together, which is why our report prints the category and, where the layer supplies it, how far the vegetation is.
If land is bush fire prone, development on it is assessed against the Rural Fire Service's Planning for Bush Fire Protection, and a dwelling is built to the construction requirements of AS 3959 for the Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) determined for the site. That can change what may be built, what it costs, and what an insurer will quote. Certain uses, including tourist accommodation and schools, are "special fire protection purpose" development and need a bush fire safety authority from the Rural Fire Service under section 100B of the Rural Fires Act 1997.
None of that makes the land unbuildable. It makes it a different build.
Bush fire prone land maps are certified council by council. The statewide layer does not carry a certification date for an individual council, so our report does not state one. If the layer does not cover the land, that means this council's map does not reach it. It is not a certificate that the land is safe, and it is not a substitute for the notation on the 10.7(2), which is the document the council answers for.
Check an address$9.90 including GST, paid once. Check the address first — the check is free and tells you which registers cover it before you pay anything.
Bush fire prone land is land identified on a bush fire prone land map made by a New South Wales council under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and certified by the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Land is mapped either for the vegetation it carries or for its position within a buffer adjoining that vegetation. Vegetation categories distinguish hazard classes, with Category 1 the highest.
Development on bush fire prone land is assessed against the Rural Fire Service's Planning for Bush Fire Protection (the 2019 edition, as amended, at September 2026), and dwellings are built to the construction requirements of AS 3959 for the Bushfire Attack Level determined for the site. Development of bush fire prone land for a special fire protection purpose — including a school, hospital, tourist accommodation or seniors housing — requires a bush fire safety authority from the NSW Rural Fire Service under section 100B of the Rural Fires Act 1997.
General information about New South Wales registers. Not legal, planning or valuation advice for any particular property.