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Fencing Adelaide

Guide 2 of 7 · Row 0, one tick of it

Guide 2 of 7

When a fence is a minor operation

The height question in South Australia is answered by a clause of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) Regulations 2017, in the version numbered 17.9.2026, which names a fence height and then takes eight kinds of fence back out of the item.

General information about South Australia’s fencing law, not legal advice about your fence.

  1. The notice A notice in Form 1 or Form 2 starts the Act's machinery. Form 1 must state six things (s 5(2)).
  2. Their 30 days The Magistrates Court, to which a fencing dispute may be taken (s 12)Thirty days from service. No objection served in them, and the Act deems agreement (s 7).
  3. Your 30 days, from C C+1C+30 The Magistrates Court, to which a fencing dispute may be taken (s 12)From C, the day a cross-notice is served: the proponent's thirty days to object to a counter-proposal (s 6(3)).
  4. 28 days to start E+1 Twenty-eight days from the day the proponent may proceed, and the last two days of the thirty are drawn empty: miss the twenty-eight, or any longer period the parties agree or the court fixes, and the adjoining owner may start (s 8(3)).
  5. 2 days to enter W At least two days before the work day W: notice in writing before the land is entered, except in an emergency (s 18(2)).
  6. Four monthsa different scale Four months, or another period agreed or ordered. Past it the part of the agreement still to be performed lapses (s 8(5), (6)).
  7. No count Damaged or destroyed, with an urgent need to repair or restore: the work may be done without notice, and no count runs (s 16(1)).

Every row of the count opens a guide. Each row is a section of the Fences Act 1975 (SA), named on the row, and the columns are days, read left to right; a hatched cell is drawn empty on purpose.

  1. 0 The noticeWhat the notice must say Six cells for the six things the form must state (s 5(2))

    Six things on the form: length and position, nature, a cost estimate, the amount sought, any compensation, the contractor (s 5(2)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 5(2)

  2. 30 Their 30 daysAnswering a notice Thirty lit days, from service to the end of the count (s 8(1)(a))

    Thirty days from the day the notice is served. Silence at the end of them is agreement (s 7).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 8(1)(a)

  3. 30 Your 30 days, from CAnswering a notice Thirty lit days, counted from C, the day a cross-notice is served (s 6(3))

    From C, the day a cross-notice is served: the proponent's thirty days to object to a counter-proposal (s 6(3)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 6(3)

  4. The Magistrates Court, to which a fencing dispute may be taken (s 12)

    A difference about fencing work may be taken to the Magistrates Court, the court the Act names (s 12).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 12

  5. 28 28 days to startStarting, and stalling Twenty-eight lit days, and two cells drawn empty (s 8(3))

    Twenty-eight days to begin, or any longer period the parties agree or the court fixes, counted from the day the proponent may proceed; two cells are drawn empty beside them (s 8(3)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 8(3)

  6. 2 2 days to enterStarting, and stalling Two lit cells before the work day W (s 18(2))

    At least two days before the work day W: notice in writing before the land is entered, except in an emergency (s 18(2)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 18(2)

  7. 4 Four monthsStarting, and stalling Four month bars, on their own scale (s 8(6))

    Four months, unless another period is agreed or ordered, after which the unperformed part of the agreement lapses (s 8(5), (6)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 8(6)

  8. none No countAfter a storm One marked day, and no count lit beside it (s 16(1))

    Damaged or destroyed, with an urgent need to repair or restore: the work may be done without notice, and no count runs (s 16(1)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 16(1)

  • CC, the day a cross-notice is served. The adjoining owner may serve it within thirty days after the notice was served (s 6(1)), and the proponent's own thirty days run from C (s 6(3)).
  • EE, the day the proponent becomes entitled to proceed. The twenty-eight days to start are counted from it (s 8(1), (3)).
  • WW, the day the land is entered for the fencing work. The notice in writing is served at least two days before it (s 18(2)).

The clause, and its fence item

Clause 4 of Schedule 4 of the Regulations is headed Sundry minor operations. Its first subsection opens by gathering the construction or alteration of, or addition to, any of a list of things, each of them other than in respect of a local heritage place, and it says so in those words, including any incidental excavation or filling. One of the things in the list is a fence: item (d) reads "a fence not exceeding 2.1 m in height (measured from the lower of the 2 adjoining finished ground levels)", and then carves eight kinds of fence back out of it.

Two things in that sentence are easy to read past. The height is measured from the lower of the two adjoining finished ground levels, not from the higher side, so the height is taken from whichever side of the fence has the lower finished ground. And the list is drawn as minor operations, so a fence inside the height and outside the eight carve-outs is the kind of construction the clause deals with, while a fence inside a carve-out is one the item does not cover. Regulation 3C(3) adds that no exclusion under Schedule 4, this clause included, applies in respect of a State heritage place.

The eight fences the item does not cover

  • (i), first limb

    a fence in a designated flood zone, subzone or overlay identified under the Planning and Design Code for the purposes of the subsubparagraph

  • (i), second limb

    a fence in any other zone, subzone or overlay identified under the Planning and Design Code for the purposes of the subsubparagraph

  • (ii)

    a fence in the Historic Area Overlay under the Planning and Design Code, or another area identified under the Code for the purpose, on the boundary of the allotment with a road, other than a laneway

  • (iia), first case

    in the Historic Area Overlay, where no adjacent building faces the same road: a fence between the building line of the main face of a building and the road the building faces

  • (iia), second case

    in the Historic Area Overlay, where an adjacent building faces the same road: a fence between a notional line drawn between the nearest front corner of each building and the road the buildings face, with buildings separated only by a laneway still taken as adjacent

  • (iib)

    a fence on land used, or to be used, for co-located housing, other than a fence on the boundary of that land and other land

  • (iii)

    a fence that exceeds, or would exceed, 1 m in height within 6 m of the intersection of 2 boundaries of land where both boundaries face a road, other than where a 4 x 4 m corner cut-off has already been provided and is to be preserved

  • (iv)

    a masonry fence, or a fence any part of which is formed from masonry, including for example masonry piers or columns, that exceeds, or would exceed, 1 m in height, measured if relevant from the lower of the 2 adjoining finished ground levels

  • (v)

    a fence that is, or is to be, a safety fence for a swimming pool or spa pool approved for construction, or requiring approval for construction, on or after 1 July 1993

  • (vi)

    a brush fence that is, or is to be, closer than 3 m to an existing or proposed Class 1 or 2 building under the Building Code, measured from any part of the brush fence and any part of an external wall, with the subparagraph not extending to a repair of an existing brush fence that does not enlarge or extend it

The clause also defines its material: masonry, for the (iv) carve-out, means stone, brick, terracotta or concrete block, or any other similar building unit or material, or a combination of any of them.

The rest of the list

The fence is one item among several in the same subsection, and each of the others hangs off the same opening words, other than in respect of a local heritage place. Item (a) is an outbuilding in which human activity is secondary, unless it is in a designated flood zone, subzone or overlay, or another zone, subzone or overlay identified for the purpose; item (ab) is a temporary structure on land where a building has been destroyed or significantly damaged by a bushfire or a flood; and item (b) is a windmill or a flagpole, with its own conditions left for the regulation. Reading the fence item in that company is the point: this is a clause about small works, not a fence code on its own.

What the carve-outs turn on is visible in the list itself. Some are places: identified flood or other zones, the Historic Area Overlay, the corner of two road boundaries, land for co-located housing. Some are materials: masonry, and brush. One is a distance: 3 m from a Class 1 or 2 building, for a brush fence. One is a use: a safety fence for a pool or spa approved, or requiring approval, for construction on or after 1 July 1993.

The Historic Area Overlay

PlanSA's own description of the Historic Area Overlay of the Planning and Design Code is that it protects the places that give a neighbourhood its historic value, and that it comes with Historic Area Statements, listing what in an area's history matters and should be protected or complemented. The Historic Area Statements and the Character Area Statements are both now in place.

Inside the same family, PlanSA names Representative Buildings, which it says used to be called Contributory Items: the Statements refer to them, and the South Australian Planning and Property Atlas maps them. PlanSA adds that these buildings display characteristics of importance in an area, and that identifying them is not meant to suggest that the remaining buildings in a Historic or Character Area matter less. The page states one difference between the two overlays in a line: Representative Buildings in the Historic Area Overlay do have demolition control, and those in the Character Area Overlay do not.

For a fence, the Overlay appears twice in the regulation's own list, at (ii) and (iia): a fence in the Overlay on a road boundary, and a fence in the Overlay in the space between a building and the road it faces, are both outside the minor operation item.

Which questions decide your fence

From the regulation: the height against the 2.1 m figure, measured from the lower of the two finished ground levels; whether any part is masonry, against the 1 m figure; the distance to the corner, if the fence sits within 6 m of an intersection of two road boundaries; the distance to a Class 1 or 2 building, for a brush fence; whether the fence is a safety fence for a pool or spa approved, or requiring approval, for construction on or after 1 July 1993; and whether the land is in an identified zone, in the Historic Area Overlay, on a road boundary inside it, or on land for co-located housing. Two heritage questions come with these: the clause's opening words leave out any local heritage place, and under regulation 3C(3) no Schedule 4 exclusion applies in respect of a State heritage place.

One thing this page cannot answer is the one thing only the address can: whether a particular property sits in the Historic Area Overlay, in an identified zone, or on the Atlas as a Representative Building. The sources say where to look. The PlanSA page names the Overlay and the Statements, and it points to the Atlas for where the Representative Buildings are mapped.

The Regulations carry their own version number, 17.9.2026, so a reader holding a copy can tell which text it is.