BUILDING DEVELOPMENT IN QUEENSLAND (revised February 2007) The law Welcome to the one aspect of the most regulated and complex activity that you can undertake in Queensland. The regulation of building activity has developed over the last 30 years as a result of a political desire to eliminate as far as possible, trauma in people lives as a result of building things. The complexity of the system has been exacerbated by the decision of the Queensland Government some 10 years ago to adopt a single system to manage all development approvals in Queensland. The effect of this has been a largely complex and unwieldy system which tries to cater for getting development approval for everything, under the one Act. Add to this a rapidly escalating amount of social and amenity controls currently being rolled out under contemporary planning schemes of local governments in Queensland and you have a system that is now a huge Gordian Knot and beyond the capacity of the average citizen to successfully negotiate without expensive professional help. Think I'm being a bit dramatic read this The administrative process of undertaking this activity is controlled by the Integrated Development Assessment System (IDAS) and the standards and supervision of the activity is regulated by the Building Services Authority (BSA) under the Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 and local governments and private building certifiers under the Building Act 1975 This system is also supported by a plethora of other legislation. The principal other pieces of legislation being Local Government Act 1993 Plumbing Drainage Act 2004  Download copies of Queensland legislation here Administrative process The legislation setting the construction standards is principally the Building Act 1975, although as you will see other legislation has a part to play in some instances. Every local government in Queensland has the power to control many aspect of a development using the provision of their new IPA Planning schemes. It is anticipated that all local government will have these schemes in place by the end of 2007 The Building Act 1975, supports the Building Regulation 2006 and in turn this call up the Building Code of Australia and Queensland Building Code which in turn calls up Australian Standards and makes provision for Manufacturers specifications Construction Supervision Construction supervision is broken down into 2 aspects 1. Supervision of the assembly of building materials. This process is governed by Building Regulation 2006 which set both mandatory and recommended guideline for the inspection of development-building works  2. Supervision of the conduct of personal involved in Building Works. This process is governed by Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 and Building Act 1975 which set both mandatory and recommended guideline for the qualification and conduct of persons involved in development-building works  OBTAINING A PERMIT TO DO BUILDING WORKS Obtaining a permit to build in 2007 is no simple matter. However you can only come at this experience from one of 2 scenarios So you select who you want to be. Bob Debuilder Owen Deowner-Builder