How high can a fence be in Tasmania?

Tasmania answers “how high can my fence be” three different ways, because there are three different questions hiding in it. Do you need approval? Does the planning scheme allow it? And how much will your neighbour chip in? Three laws, three sets of numbers. 1

The 1.8 m you have probably seen quoted is none of those. It comes from the planning scheme’s rules about fences along a street boundary, which is a different question again — covered further down.

How high can you build a fence in Tasmania without approval?

Start with building control. A fence is a “structure”, structures are “buildings”, and building work is permit-tier by default, unless it falls into a lighter category. 2

The Director of Building Control sets those categories, and the fence thresholds are exact. 2.1 m for a normal fence. Only 1.2 m for brick or concrete. And 3 m for chain link. All of that is “low-risk work” you can build yourself with no council involvement at all. 1

Above those thresholds there’s no height cap at all. What changes is who has to be involved: the fence becomes what the law calls “notifiable work”. A designer designs it, a licensed builder builds it, and a building surveyor inspects it. In Tasmania that surveyor is a private practitioner you hire, not the council. 2

Here’s the catch, and it’s the thing to remember about Tasmania. Planning is a second, separate rulebook. A fence that clears the building thresholds still has to fit the planning exemptions below, and the two use different numbers. It’s 2.1 m under the building rules, but 1.8 m under the planning rules next to public land. A fence can pass one and fail the other, so check both. 3

How high can a front fence be in Tasmania?

The planning scheme’s exemption for street-front fences works like this. Within 4.5 m of the street, 1.2 m if solid, or up to 1.8 m if everything above 1.2 m is at least 30% see-through. 3

Away from the street the planning exemption rises to 2.1 m, or 1.8 m where the boundary adjoins public land. And in the Rural and Agriculture zones, fences are planning-exempt with no height condition at all. 3

Two things override all of these. A heritage-listed place can need a permit whatever the height, and each council’s Local Provisions Schedule can vary the scheme for particular areas. Worth a check if your block is unusual. 3

Is there a 1.8 m fence limit in Tasmania?

Not the way it’s usually quoted. Tasmania’s most mis-cited fence rule is section 48 of the Boundary Fences Act 1908, and it’s about hedges. A neighbour can serve notice requiring a live boundary fence to be kept trimmed to 1.8 m. It sets no limit on any built fence. 4

Who pays for a dividing fence in Tasmania?

The 1908 Act defines a “sufficient fence” by what it does, not by how tall it is. Stock-proof in the country, or “the description and quality agreed or awarded” in town. 4

Neighbours share the cost of that basic fence, in whatever proportions are agreed or awarded. In a very Tasmanian touch, the Act applies the same machinery to rabbit-proof fences. 4

You start by giving your neighbour a form called a notice to fence. Agreement first, and the Act’s award machinery if you can’t reach one. 4

What about pool fences in Tasmania?

A pool barrier is always professional work. Whatever its height, a licensed builder has to build it, under its own safety rules. None of the general fence numbers on this page apply to it. 1